‘G-B women won’t be deprived of voting right’

Bilawal vows to empower women, youth of region

ABBOTABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his party will thwart all alleged attempts aimed at preventing women from exercising their right to franchise during upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.

“Some people say that women will not be allowed to vote in Diamir but the jiyalas and jiyalis will not allow such people to succeed,” he said while addressing a women convention at the residence of his party worker Saadia Danish in Diamer on Tuesday.

Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and Qamar Zaman Kaira among other party leaders also attended the event.

Bilawal said Saadia is a follower of his late mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and will win the election from Diamir because she is carrying the ideology of the great leader.

The optimistic PPP chief said his party will win the polls and “celebrate victory on November 15”.

Over a dozen political and religious parties – including the country's three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and PPP – are contesting the polls scheduled to be held on Nov 15.

The PPP leader said that British era’s FCR (Frontier Crime Regulation) system was abolished by his late grandfather and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1970s to empower the region.

In previous PPP tenures at the Centre, he said the status of the region was elevated and steps were taken to ensure democratic rights of the people. “Now PPP wants to give the people of G-B their own province, right to rule, right to choose prime minister of Pakistan and the right to own property.”

He said his mother introduced democracy in the region while his father former president Asif Ali Zardari gave identity to the people of G-B.

The PPP chairman said the elections in the region are being held to bring improvements in the mountainous region particularly by empowering the region’s youth and women.

Bilawal said like Sindh, his party will also introduce poverty alleviation programme in G-B for women and create employment opportunities for the locals.

“Today people are being made unemployed in the country but the PPP will provide jobs to the people of G-B. We need people-friendly economic policies to overcome challenges like unemployment and price hike.”

He also urged the people of the region to vote for PPP in the November 15 election, while pledging to fulfill his election promises made to the people of G-B.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2020.