Establishment must explain what happened in Karachi: Bilawal

Claims the PPP will sweep polls from Sindh’s capital; calls PML-N a failed party

LAHORE: Claiming that his party believes establishment should have no role in politics, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has said the establishment should explain why it allegedly played a role in brokering an alliance between two Karachi-based parties.

“They [establishment] should explain and justify what happened in Karachi over the past few days. It is a farce with my city and insult to the people of Karachi,” Bilawal said on Monday while talking to media after offering condolences to the family of Sain Heera, the PPP’s oldest party worker.



The PPP chief was responding to a question with regard to the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal’s claim that the establishment on the request of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar tried to broker an alliance between the two parties.

“The PSP and MQM-P have made very serious allegations against each other, which is very unfortunate. However, in 2018 general election, none of these parties, including [the PTI chief] Imran Khan, can stand against the PPP,” he said.

Bilawal also called the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) a Nakam League [failed party], adding be it population census, national security or other public issues, the PML-N had failed in solving all problems of the masses.

“There are ideological differences between the PPP and the PML-N. The PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is trying to mix his personal problems with inherent political issues of the country to shun ongoing accountability and it makes no sense for the PPP to enter into any dialogue with the PML-N,” he said.

He said his party believed in continuation and peaceful transfer of power from one democratic government to another. “The Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan is in haste because he knows the PTI cannot win if elections are held on time. The PPP believes in timely elections and completion of parliament’s tenure,” he added.

Criticising the ruling party, he said the PML-N was a master in making all issues controversial. Talking about the population census, he said the government despite repeated requests did not share census results with the Sindh government and made the entire headcount process controversial.



“Many months ago, the PPP had taken up the census issue in the Senate and we were assured that data of one per cent of the blocks would be rechecked but it did not happen till today.

“Around a population of six million people is not counted in census when the National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) and national headcount data is compared,” he added.

He said there were great discrepancies in official census data. “But we are ready to swallow this bitter pill if government agrees to address our reservations,” he said, adding that the government had also ‘played a game’ in housing count by declaring average household size of six in Sindh and seven in Punjab.

Talking with reference to the political alliance formed by the former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, he said: “Musharraf is an absconder who will have to return to Pakistan to face treason and murder cases.”