Bilawal touts Jiyala power as long march continues

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday fired a broadside at Prime Minister Imran Khan, accusing him of being apathetic to the problems facing the people of the country.
Continuing his anti-government long march towards the federal capital, the PPP chairman was given a rousing welcome when his caravan reached Khairpur, where he addressed tens of thousands of his supporters.

Addressing a charged crowd, he said that senior PPP leader Qaim Ali Shah and Imran Khan were nearly the same age but Qaim still worked for the youth of the country but the “selected” Imran had disappointed the youth. “The new Pakistan is not accepted by the people because there is no return for the labour of common man, no return for the crops of growers, no return for the educational degrees because the youth cannot get jobs,” the PPP chairman said.

“The history bears witness that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto provided jobs to the people, not only in the country but abroad as well. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto served the people of Pakistan and the slogan that was raised was ‘Benazir Aaye Gi, Rozgar Laye Gi’ [Benazir will come and bring employment],” he added.

Bilawal mentioned that when former president Asif Zardari came to power, the world was going through the worst recession but he introduced the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). “President Zardari increased salaries up to a 100% and pensions by more than a 100%,” he said.

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“In contrast, this puppet government for the last three years has been saying that he [Prime Minister Imran] cannot provide jobs to the youth of the country. Every promise by Imran Khan proved to be false whether it was 1 crore [10 million] jobs or 50 lakh [five million] houses,” he continued.

“The Jiyalas will hold him accountable for every lie. Imran says, do not worry if you have expensive gas, petrol, electricity, medicine, essential commodities, edibles etc. He does not know that Jiyalas do not worry but it is time for Imran Khan to start worrying,” he added. “Now, the selected has started worrying,” he said, in the context of the relief package announced by the prime minister on Monday. Bilawal said that Imran had buckled under the pressure of the long march and announced the reduction in the petrol and electricity prices.

However, the PPP chairman told the crowd, Imran “cannot fool the people because they know that just a day before, the price of electricity increased by Rs6 and petrol by Rs12”. “Imran Khan’s gimmickry will not work.” Bilawal said that during the eight years of rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and three years in the federal government, Imran could not even match the development carried out by the PPP government in the Khairpur district alone.

“The PPP has established universities in this district. We have Gambat Hospital in Khairpur district which treats kidney, liver, heart, cancer, thalassemia patients and has started free-of-charge bone-marrow transplants. On the other hand, Shaukat Khanum only treats cancer patients and that’s too on hefty charges.”

The PPP chairman announced that his long march would enter Punjab a day after tomorrow and through the GT Road, “we will enter Islamabad and remove this undemocratic puppet in a democratic manner” which he described as the no-confidence motion.