PTI trying to impose ‘puppet’ govt in AJK: Bilawal

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Saturday that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led (PTI) government was trying to bring a ‘puppet’ prime minister in Azad Kashmir.

Addressing the party’s packed election campaign rally in Kotli, the PPP chairman fired a broadside at Prime Minister Imran Khan for allegedly trying to bring “a puppet government in Azad Kashmir”.

The fate of the Kashmiri people will be determined by Kashmiris themselves, Bilawal said.Imran Khan is trying to rig the upcoming election in Kashmir because he himself is a product of rigged elections, he added.

Bilawal said that while people in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were resisting Narendra Modi’s brute rule, “their fellow-fighters in Azad Kashmir were fighting PM Khan’s rising inflation and unemployment”.

“We want to make it clear to both Delhi and PTI government that only Kashmiris will be allowed to decide their fate.”He said the PTI government was trying to impose taxes on energy projects in Azad Kashmir and strangulated people with extreme economic woes.

The change PM Imran Khan has brought is nothing but poverty, inflation and unemployment, he added.Chairman PPP – flanked by former prime minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and candidates of Kotli Division - said PPP came into existence to resolve the Kashmir issue and was still resolute in its cause.

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“We learnt from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that, if need be, we will fight for thousand years. We learnt from Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto that we will shed our blood where Kashmiri’s shed their sweat”.

Kashmiris are set to exercise their right to vote in the 11th general elections for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) on July 25.

“If you help PPP form a government, we will solve all your problems and get you rid of both Modi and Imran Khan,” Bilawal asked the crowd, promising a bright future for the people once PPP was elected.

“History is witness to the fact that we have struggled against dictatorships together. You supported President Zardari and Qamar Zaman Kaira was your minister for Kashmir affairs,” he reminded the Kashmiris.

“You have to help elect PPP candidates with a huge margin. The PPP will serve the people of Kashmir after getting elected on 25 July.”

“The people who claimed that PPP had vanished should come here and see the fervour and zeal of the people of Kotli. The PPP is still the most vibrant force from Karachi to Kashmir”.“PPP will solve the water problem in Kotli and build a ring road,” Bilawal told the charged crowd, promising drastic developments in the state, including increased salaries and pensions.

“Imran Khan had promised to provide 10 million jobs and five million houses but instead rendered thousands of people unemployed and homeless.”