Bilawal losing Sindh in quest of Islamabad: FM

Says PPP is using separate province card in South Punjab

HYDERABAD:

The Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday asked Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to give up march on Islamabad, or he might lose whatever influence he has in Sindh.

At a press conference and while addressing a public meeting of Paksitan Tehreek-e-Insaf, in connection with Huqooq-e-Sindh march, in Hyderabad on Saturday, Qureshi said Bilawal should cancel the march and return to Sindh.

“If I was in place of Bilawal I would have immediately stopped the long march and returned to Sindh because my eyes are watching deepening cracks in the political embankments of Sindh,” he contended.

“If those cracks keep widening, they will pave the way for a flood.”

He warned Bilawal that it is possible that while he remained preoccupied with the failed attempt in Islamabad for ousting prime minister Imran Khan, “someone else emerged as the leader of Sindh”.

Reacting to the PPP’s power show in south Punjab on their way to Islamabad, Qureshi said Bilawal has been selling fake hope of a southern Punjab based province.

He claimed that he wrote a letter to the PPP’s chairman some time ago and requested him to join hands with the PTI’s government to address the issue of South Punjab. However, he added, Bilawal did not reply to his correspondence.

He recalled that after having swept 2018 general election in south Punjab the PTI was more concerned about aspirations of the people unlike the PPP which could only secure four seats from that region. He credited his party’s government for taking practical steps in the direction of transferring administrative authority to that region.

According to him, as part of the administrative measures, the bureaucracy’s secretariats have been established in Multan and Bahawalpur. In addition to devising the rules of business, additional chief secretaries and additional IGs have also been posted. Moreover, the secretaries of 16 different government departments including education, health and other public service oriented departments have been posted in Multan and Bahawalpur.

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Qureshi said the PTI’s government has allocated separate development funds for the belt and that those funds cannot be utilized in any other part of Punjab. He disclosed that the PM is planning to set a fixed employment government employment quota as well. “Now you [Bilawal] should tell what PPP has done for Sindh. Tell us and tell the people of Punjab my son what practical steps have you taken in Sindh?”

The Federal Ports and Shipping Minister Ali Zaidi said some people warned the PM against embarking on a long march in Sindh because they thought the people will remain aloof to their march. However, Khan was not convinced by their political assessment and gave the party’s leader the green signal to kick start the march.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2022.