Bilawal lampoons govt over rising poverty

PPP chief says the govt is PTI’s first and its last

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari fired a broadside against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Saturday, saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan-led dispensation had given the people nothing but poverty, price hike and unemployed during the last three years.

Addressing a public meeting in Tando Allahyar, the PPP chief said that this was the first government of Imran and his last, because the people knew how to protect their rights, and they would send this government packing soon.

Read China’s concerns must be removed: Bilawal

“Whenever an undemocratic and elected government comes, the people are deprived of their rights,” he said. “Let them celebrate now, but when the decision comes in the hands of the people and they get the chance to vote, they will decide for themselves,” he added.

“We will drive this incompetent and the failed selected government out,” Bilawal told the party supporters. “We have to get rid of them and bring a people’s government,” he added. “Neither the people of Pakistan believed in these rulers before, nor today. We will drive them out in the future.”

In a reference to the three-year performance report issued by the government earlier this week, the PPP chairman said that unemployment, inflation and poverty started increasing from the day one of the current government. He alleged that from the onset, poor masses were the target of this government.

“His [Prime Minister Imran] achievement in three years is historic inflation. The increase in poverty and unemployment during this government’s tenure was never seen in the past. The level of inflation in Pakistan is even higher than war-torn Afghanistan,” Bilawal added.

“The elected government is attacking the people from all sides. People are being robbed of their jobs. Tens of thousands of [Pakistan] Steel Mills employees have been laid off. Even those who have the meager means of subsistence are being snatched.”

لائیو: پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی ٹنڈوالہیار کے تحت بچانی ہاؤس میں ورکرز کنونشن https://t.co/BI8WftCVR0

— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) August 28, 2021

In the end, he stressed that the people of Pakistan had struggled against “not one but many dictators” in the past. “They have to be ready for the struggle once again, so that we can confront this incompetent government. If any party that could challenge this selected one, is the PPP,” he said.

Responding to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Saturday that the federal government had given more than Rs1,900 billion to the Sindh government in three years which should be accounted for.

He said that the federal government had given Rs 650 billion for Sindh Transformation Plan whereas it had given Rs 450 billion for the Sindh Rural Development Package for the people of Sindh.

Taking a jibe at Bilawal, he said that the PPP chairman perhaps did not know that his party was ruling Sindh for the past 13 years.

He reminded Bilawal that providing basic facilities to the people of Sindh was the prime responsibility of the Sindh government, which failed to fulfill its responsibility.

With additional input from APP