PPP sets date for anti-govt march on Islamabad

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would march towards Islamabad on February 27 against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced, after his party’s core committee meeting endorsed the decision taken by the Central Executive Committee (CEC).

Addressing a press conference, Bilawal said that the long march would start from the Mazar of Quaid-i-Azam in Karachi. He hinted at staging a sit-in in the federal capital, saying that the party would present its demands after reaching Islamabad.

“There’s immense public pressure on the PPP to get rid of this incompetent government. In view of the demand of the masses, the PPP has decided to take out the march towards Islamabad on February 27, that will start from Quaid-i-Azam’s Mausoleum in Karachi,” Bilawal said.

“The people are not ready to tolerate this incompetent government anymore. They are demanding for sending it packing,” he said. However, responding to a question, Bilawal clarified that there was no decision regarding bringing a no confidence motion against the government.

The PPP chairman also announced that his party oppose the approval of mini budget from the National Assembly. He added that the PPP would hold a protest in front of the Parliament House and invited the other opposition parties to join in.

Bilawal addressed the media after his party’s core committee accorded approval to decisions taken in a meeting of the CEC and the Federal Council a day earlier. He said that the CECs demanded fresh, fair and transparent elections in the country.

“The solution of the problems of the people is in democracy, democracy and more democracy,” he said. “The CEC has decided to set up manifesto committees, and has also decided to invite application from interested candidates for not only local bodies but also the National and the provincial assemblies.”

He said that PPP had protested against price-hike, shortage of gas, increase in the price of petroleum. “Now, according to the decision of the CEC, this protest will progress into the second phase from today,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

The PPP chairman told reporters that the senior party leader Taj Haider had prepared a report on “rigging in the elections” and added that “we will take that report to the ECP” and ask the polls supervisor to take action against this government.

“We demand of the ECP to take action against the PTI, which hid its foreign funding for seven long years. We have formed a legal team to look into it and challenge it,” he said.

In the mini budget, Bilawal said, “our economic independence has been compromised,” adding: “Our legal team is also working on challenging it because we want our State Bank to be sovereign.”

Also read: PPP mulling no-confidence motion against PM Imran

The PPP CEC urged the Supreme Court to revisit the “judicial murder of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto”. Bilawal said that his murder was the biggest attack on Pakistan and that entire Pakistan was waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision in this regard.

The CEC condemned the government for its failures, creating crises relating to agriculture, gas, power, poverty, unemployment, extremism and terrorism. The CEC also expressed concerns over the state’s surrender before militants, situation in Afghanistan and the secret deal on Reko Diq mines.

Bilawal said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had struggled for the merger of tribal areas and the cause was a part of her last manifesto. “Unfortunately, the merger was not fully implemented and the promises made to the tribal people were not fulfilled. Conspiracies to reverse the merger, we will resisted.”

The CEC urged the Supreme Court to vacate the stay order against the minimum wages of Rs25000 per month. The CEC paid tributes to the PPP’s legal team, which was successful in getting 16,000 sacked workers reinstated through the Supreme Court.

Bilawal urged the Supreme Court not to become “a hurdle in our provincial autonomy”. He said that the government had tried to “extend the expired ordinances through the National Assembly, and we will challenge this act of the government”.

The PPP chief told the media persons that the CEC condemned the atrocities against the Kashmiri people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and appealed to the international community to take notice.

Bilawal said that the growers of the country were running from pillar to post for fertiliser. “The crisis has got so worse that they are suffering losses owing to the shortage caused by the government. We will hold Kisan rallies in every division of Pakistan,” he added.

The PPP unveiled the long march plans, which would be held nearly a month before an anti-inflation march on Islamabad by the opposition Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM). Responding to another questions, Bilawal said that the PDM did not engage with the PPP when it was taking its decisions and the PPP was not duty-bound to take opposition parties on board regarding its decisions.

He further said that he laid the foundation of the PDM. “We had a very good strategy. We convinced our friends to take part in by-elections, then the Senate seat election in the National Assembly. We defeated Imran Khan in all elections,” he continued. However, he stressed that he desired that every democratic force come out against this incapable government.

He welcome the statement of the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), saying that it was in line with the party’s demand that all state institutions should work within their constitutional domains. “We hope that this will happen,” he said, adding those engaging in the “politics of deals did not have graveyards of the martyrs”.

When asked about elaborating on the party’s manifesto committee,” he said that the committee was working on the manifesto for the next elections. “The basis of our manifesto is always “Roti, Kapra aur Makan”.

About the mini budget, Chairman Bilawal said that the entire PPP leadership would be present on the day of voting on the mini budget. We hope that the entire opposition will also be present there,” he said.

He said that some media outlets were not reporting the amount he paid as agriculture tax. The PPP Media Office had released the figures of the total taxes he paid for the last five years,” the PPP chairman told reporters.

He said that Imran Khan used to call everyone a thief but he was exposed as the biggest thief himself. “Imran Khan is the only person in the whole of country, who got 5,800% richer whereas the entire nation become poorer. The people of Pakistan want to know how he became rich overnight.”