Democracy only way to prosperity: Bilawal

PPP leaders reject PM’s notion of passing laws through presidential ordinances

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said democracy is the only way forward for the country to prosper.

“We need to go ahead while maintaining unity … the country will only prosper if we are united,” said the young PPP chairman while addressing a festive Sindhi cultural event titled Topi and Ajrak Day at the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) on Thursday.

Other PPP leaders who attended the event included former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, Farhatullah Babar and Mustafa Nawaz Khokar.

“We maintain our principles and do not take U-turns,” said Bilawal. “We bravely dealt with the terrorists and did not take any U-turn. We have been sacrificing but have never bowed.”

He said that PPP was trying to make people powerful.

“I am extremely delighted to participate in the Topi and Ajrak Day event at SZABIST as the foundation of the institute was laid by my mother Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and now this university has achieved great milestones,” said the PPP chairman.



He stressed the need to promote every culture and every language of the country, saying all of them were an inseparable part of the country’s history.

Sindh Sangeet members donned Bilawal and other guests with Sindhi topi and ajrak.

Separately, speaking at a news conference at the National Press Club, the PPP leaders rejected the notion of Prime Minister Imran Khan of passing laws through presidential ordinances, saying parliament was there for the purpose.

Former Senate chairman Nayyar Bukhari and Senator Farhatullah Babar also blamed the government of sabotaging the committee formed to investigate election rigging.

They said the prime minister’s ignorance about the ongoing crisis and the conflict between him and Asad Umar regarding statements on the dollar’s exchange rate was proof of incompetence of the government.



“The PPP is not scared of accountability, but accountability should be done across the board,” they said. “The current government believes in political vendetta and targeted accountability due to which the country is in a state of deadlock. Our party has extensively struggled for the sake of democracy, but the current government wants to paralyse both the houses of parliament.

“We will only support if the rulers want to govern the country through parliament.”

Senator Sherry Rehman said the country was facing economic crisis.

“The internal strife between the cabinet members has come out in the open in a very short time,” she said, adding that the people could not benefit from the cuts in the petroleum prices and details regarding the loans had not been presented before the house.

She further said there was a clear contradiction in the statements of the ministers. “One minister is saying that we will be approaching the IMF while the other denies it,” said Rehman. “Parliament has been kept dysfunctional and unimportant as they want to take the country towards a presidential system.”

She urged the Supreme Court to take notice against the prime minister or the finance minister for lying about the changes in the dollar’s exchange rate, saying Article 62-1f governed the law of speaking lies and the court was carrying out the same article’s proceedings against Azam Swati.