Bilawal gives PM 24 hours to dissolve assembly

PPP chief takes premier to task for slamming EU envoys

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Monday that the every promise and slogan that Prime Minister Imran Khan made before coming to power turned out to be “false”, and gave him 24 hours to resign and dissolve the National Assembly (NA) so that fresh general elections could be held.

Referring to the premier's outburst at the envoys of the European Union, the PPP chairman called him as “puppet Imran Khan”, adding that he was harming the people of Pakistan even at the end of his rule by starting a dispute with Europe where Pakistan has billions of dollars' worth of trade and hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis work and live.

The PPP chief, while leading the ‘Awami March’, said that there is only one slogan across the country and that is "Go Selected Go", adding that this has now become the national slogan. “Every promise and slogan of Imran has proved to be false,” Bilawal said. “Now he has just 24 hours left to resign and dissolve the assembly so that fresh general elections are held.”

Bilawal also took a jibe at PM Imran by saying that the Awami March was coming to the capital to make the premier “jobless”, adding that the PM Imran was so frustrated by the success of the long march of ‘jiyalas’ that he is using abusive language and hurling threats to the opposition.

“The selected only has a day left to resign and dissolve the National Assembly, otherwise we are coming to Islamabad to hold him responsible for all the crimes he has committed against the people of Pakistan,” he said at Lala Musa. “We are coming to hold him accountable for the foreign funding, including that of India and Israel, and the theft of flour, sugar, gas, petrol, medicines and fertilisers.”

In his address at different places during the long march, Bilawal said that “selected Imran” was in power not due to the people of Pakistan. “Imran is known as 'selected' all over the world,” he said, adding that “this puppet does not deserve to be a prime minister because of his incapability and incapacity.”

Read more: No-trust threat takes its toll on PM Imran

The PPP leader accused the premier of economically murdering the labourers, farmers, youth and women, saying that PPP was the only party which always helped the country emerge from difficult situations. When ex-president Asif Ali Zardari came to power in 2008, he said, the world was faced with one of the worst recessions. Even then, he added, Zardari provided relief to the people by initiating the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), increasing salaries of the people by 120 percent and pensions by 100 percent.

“This puppet gives relief to the rich and troubles the poor,” Bilawal said, adding PM Imran changed the name of BISP to Ehsaas thinking that he would be able to erase the name of his mother and former PM Benazir Bhutto. “He cannot erase this name from the hearts of the people,” he said.

From Gujrat to Lala Musa to Jhelum and onward, Bilawal said that the whole Pakistan was against the incapable and illegitimate “selected prime minister”, adding that the final destination of the 30-kilometre long march was near and it will reach D-Chowk in the capital on Tuesday.

He reiterated that the entire nation was troubled by the economic policies of the government, saying that labourers, farmers, youth, women, students were all troubled by the premier because he has economically attacked every citizen of Pakistan.

Also read: PTI swings into action to foil opposition’s no-trust move

“He [PM] passed several anti-people budgets that have made the lives of the people hell,” Bilawal said. Now, he said, the people are not ready to bear the burden of “puppet's failed economic policies”.

He said that the puppet thinks of a U-turn as a leader's symbol, saying a leader was a person who accepts the gallows but does not budge from his stance like the :Quaid-e-Awam” Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He also said that his mother Benazir was a leader who clashed with every dictator, from General Ziaul Haq to General (r) Pervez Musharraf and challenged the terrorists and extremists. “U-turn is the selected’s symbol,” he added.

He also said that PPP has defeated PM Imran before and will do it again, saying that 10,000 employees of the Pakistan Still Mills (PSM) were rendered unemployed by PM and “we are now coming to turn him jobless”.