Bilawal throws down gauntlet to Imran

PPP chairman asks PM to dissolve assemblies

ISLAMABAD:

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday threw down the electoral gauntlet to Prime Minister Imran Khan, challenging him to hold snap polls if he really believed in his formidable popularity.

“He is going to address the nation today. I challenge him to announce dissolution of the assemblies and new elections today and then the PPP will see him [in the elections],” Bilawal said while addressing his party’s long march in Hyderabad on Monday, hours before the PM’s address.

His challenge was ensued by a warning to the prime minister to resign by March 8, when the PPP’s long march is expected to reach Islamabad. “Either he should resign himself or I will not be able to stop Jiyalas in Islamabad.”

Bilawal said he was leading the march to the capital with the aim of unleashing a democratic attack through the no-confidence vote against Imran’s government.

Bilawal believed that the nation has expressed distrust on Imran’s government and asked parliamentarians to follow suit. “The time has come to table the no-confidence move.”

The PPP’s chairman argued that the prime minister and his team were not genuine representatives of the people rather of some other powers. “When they are in trouble, they never look towards the people for support but to the powers who have installed them.”

Read: Govt urged to repeal amendment to 'draconian' PECA Ordinance

He blamed the prime minister for making the nation suffer at the hands of his flawed policies and nepotism and said that the people can no longer tolerate him at the helm.

He felt that the PTI’s leadership has begun to take the fight at the PPP’s march even though it only entered its second day on Monday. “We can hear screams from Bani Gala here. In just one day jiyalas have caused him so much pain. What will happen to him [Khan] when we reach Islamabad on March 8.”

He said that his party began the struggle against the PTI’s government after the PTI-IMF budget let loose inflation on the country.

He added that they are also fighting against the government’s policies which have created economic crises. “We have to end this government and send Imran home in order to conduct free and fair elections so that the people’s government which has the real mandate comes to the power.”

Read: Bilawal throws weight behind fresh polls

Referring to the PTI’s Huqooq-e-Sindh march, which is being led by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, he said the puppet prime minister has sent his federal ministers to lead a march in Sindh in reaction to the PPP’s long march.

He contended that the people of the province will never support Imran’s party because they know that his federal government has been robbing the province’s rights by denying it financial resources and restricting water and gas supplies.

Bilawal blamed the prime minister for doing injustice with all the provinces in the country and said the time has come to hold him accountable. “The time has come to stop this drama.”

Bilawal said the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Amendment) Ordinance reflected his hidden fears of the public criticism of his government, its deeds and policies.

He added that Imran was a coward because he has been trying to ban criticism over himself, his wife and his government by the media.

“And now an ordinance has come that says anyone abusing prime minister or saying anything wrong against him on the social media will have to go to jail for five years.”

The PPP’s chairman asserted that there is no comparison between former president and PPP’s Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari-led federal government and the one being headed by Imran.

He credited his father for restoring the 1973 Constitution, by enacting the 18th Amendment, gave autonomy to the provinces, renewing national finance commission award and renaming the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

He said the Gwadar project and stalled Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline were some other achievement of Zardari government.