Bilawal slams ‘changing of CPEC route’

PPP chairman says Balochistan has been deprived of the project's benefit

QUETTA: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday maintained that the people of Balochistan had been deprived from reaping the benefits of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by changing the route of the project.

“We [PPP] brought revolutionary projects like CPEC that was meant for you, the people of Balochistan, [particularly] the residents of Gwadar… it was supposed to create job opportunities for you and strengthen your economy,” the scion of the Bhutto dynasty said while addressing convention of the party’s activists in the provincial capital.

QUETTA, December 15: Chairman Pakistan People's Party (PPP) @BBhuttoZardari addressed the Workers' Convention here on Sunday. President PPP Balochistan Ali Madad Jatak and other party leaders were also present. pic.twitter.com/SkAHEyP3ml

— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) December 15, 2019

“Unfortunately, unlike the vision of [former] president Zardari who wanted that the project should benefit the most impoverished areas… that the route should start from [erstwhile] Fata to Balochistan, the route has been changed. Now it’s starting from Lahore and Sindh,” he added.

“These selected puppets [incumbent government] cannot provide you with those benefits.”

The PPP chairman further said his party’s government had given Balochistan and other provinces control over their own resources through the 18th Constitutional Amendment and also introduced the Aghaz-e-Haqooq Balochistan package for the development of the province.

“Regrettably, the rulers now are not implementing these schemes,” Bilawal maintained.

The PPP chairman said his party was the only one that ensured that a project benefitted the residents of the area where it was launched.

“We empowered the citizens of Thar through the Thar coal power project,” he cited an example, adding that the women there were now working in various capacities ranging from from truck drivers to civil engineers.

The PPP chairman said it was necessary to rid the country of the puppets rulers and establish the rule of the people.

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"We do not accept any ‘selected’ or ‘selector’. For us, the real power lies with the masses, not the finger of an umpire," he added. “The economy is being run to benefit the selected and the selectors instead of the people.”

The PPP chairman pointed out that his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and mother Benazir Bhutto were martyred in Rawalpindi and now the third generation of the family was facing trials in the same city.

"We want to make it clear that we are ready to face any situation but we won’t tolerate further oppression of the poor. If our opponents think they can intimidate the son of Benazir Bhutto, they are mistaken.”

Bilawal criticised the curbs on the freedom of the media in the country, pointing out that interviews of opposition leaders including his father were stopped from being aired on TV.

“However, interviews of members of banned organisations, RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav, and Indian airforce pilot Abhinandan Varthaman are broadcasted,” he added.

Bilawal said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had taken many revolutionary measures including abolishing the feudal system. “He gave the people their rights, but some forces did not want to see the rule of the masses in the country and that led to the martyrdom of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He preferred to die at the hands of a dictator, but will always remain alive in history.”

“پاکستان کا ہر شہری، پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے تمام کارکنان اس بات پر قائم ہیں کہ طاقت کا سر چشمہ صرف عوام ہے۔ ہمیں نہ تو سلیکٹڈ قبول ہے نہ ہی کسی ایمپائر کی انگلی۔”

چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری@BBhuttoZardari
(4/4) pic.twitter.com/MjFAp6UnkY

— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) December 15, 2019