Bilawal vows to revive PPP's socialist ideology

Party celebrates golden jubilee with show of power in Islamabad; Zardari says won't save Sharif anymore

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) on Tuesday pledged to revert to socialist ideology and strive for egalitarian democracy – the goals set by its founding fathers 50 years ago.

The party’s young chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, delineated the broader contours of the future politics of the party in an apolitical speech at a successful show of power at a golden jubilee event in the federal capital.

A crowd of more than 20,000 people filled Islamabad’s Parade Ground, also known as Democracy Park. Political analysts believe that the PPP’s show of power, which came after a long time, was thanks to its younger lot which has taken up the challenge of reviving the party in Punjab.

 



Instead of taking on his political opponents in an articulated speech, Bilawal, who became the party head after the assignation of his mother Benazir Bhutto in 2007, focused on the successes his party had achieved and the sacrifices it rendered during the past 50 years.

“We will make Pakistan [a] socialist country and continue with reforms initiated by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and later by Benazir Bhutto,” Bilawal vowed, delineating his policy for the future.

He said his reforms meant for the empowerment of women, provision of education and health facilities and giving jobs to the youngsters. The party will strive to consolidate the reforms it introduced during its last term in office under the leadership of his father, Asif Zardari.

He specifically mentioned the autonomy granted to provinces in the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) reforms and its prosed merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Agaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) reforms packages.



Some of these reforms packages were unveiled but could not be implanted by the time the PPP’s five-year term in office ended in 2013. Other objectives include reforms judicial system and police, the establishment of the writ of state and rule of law and end to sectarianism and terrorism, he said.

However, the PPP chairman did not elaborate how these objectives would be achieved. It is expected the party would inculcate these broad parameters in its election manifesto, for which a committee of senior party leaders is already been established.

Before Bhutto Zardari’s speech, former president Asif Zardari targeted the top leadership of the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He said he saved former prime minister Nawaz Sharif twice in the last five years but would not save him this time.

In 2013, Zardari said, his party accepted “PML-N’s fake mandate”. Calling PTI chairman Imran Khan a “fake” Khan, he said the second time he saved Sharif was when Khan staged a sit-in against the government in 2014.

“We will not save them this time,” Zardari, the Co-Chairman of the PPP, told the crowd. In remarks which indicated the PPP would try to dislodge the government before completing its term, he said his party would try the PML-N did not remain in power.

Zardari blasted the policies of the PML-N government. He accused the government of artificially keeping the dollar rate low. According to him, the realistic rate of the dollar should have been Rs147. “They (PML-N government) want to pass [rupee devaluation] on to the interim government,” he said.

Turning to Imran Khan, Zardari said the PTI chief was naive because he did not know how to run the country when the national kitty was empty. Referring to former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, he said dictatorship has no future.

Zardari expressed a desire for improving relations with Pakistan’s western neighbour Afghanistan, but vowed that his party would never compromise on the Kashmir dispute.