Bilawal urges politicians to unite against terror

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on all political parties on Wednesday to set differences aside and unite against the escalating threat of terrorism.

Addressing the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, the Bhutto scion condemned the recent terrorist attack in Dera Ismail Khan. Bilawal said that terrorism was rising in the country, and it could only be fought together, reiterating that no single party could deal with the menace alone.

“If we continue to fight each other, the enemy will keep taking advantage of it,” he added.

The former foreign minister emphasized Pakistan's unparalleled sacrifices in its efforts to eradicate terrorism. He commended the resilient people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for shouldering the heaviest burden in the nation's war against terrorism.

However, he raised concerns about a perceived resurgence in terrorism, attributing it to the release of individuals involved in heinous attacks without parliamentary approval or public consensus.

The PPP leader criticized the decision to allow unchecked immigration when the Afghan government was overthrown, asserting that it set the country back a decade. He cited the recent attack in DI Khan as an example, lamenting the adverse impact on the police, army, and civilians.

He asserted that the families of those martyred in the Army Public School (APS) attack should be told "who traded their [children's] blood and how".

Regarding the hearing of the presidential reference filed to revisit the 1979 death sentence given to former prime minister and founder of PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Bilawal thanked Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa for giving the Bhutto family a chance on the case.

“We want the history to be corrected. All those involved in this crime must be exposed,” the Bhutto scion said, adding that this was an opportunity that could bring Pakistan out of crisis.

“No judge has used this case as a precedent,” he said. “One dictator made a decision of his own... against a prime minister who not only gave Pakistan its Constitution, but also laid the foundation of the country becoming a nuclear power," he said.

Read Pakistan vows retaliation after DI Khan atrocity

“Back then when Palestinians were being oppressed it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who explained to the Arab countries that your oil was your power,” he recalled, adding that, during that period, the US had warned ZAB that they intended to make an example out of him.

Criticizing the PTI for seemingly mocking Bhutto's slogans, Bilawal, in an indirect reference to the ongoing legal issues surrounding PTI founder Imran Khan, asserted that the PPP would persist in seeking justice. He expressed the party's commitment to putting an end to what he called undue pressure on judges influencing their verdicts.

"Who raised questions when a judge expressed a desire to build a dam?" questioned the PTI chairman, alluding to former CJP Saqib Nisar in another veiled reference.

"Does a judge have the right to say that he wants to rebuild the city he belongs to? Under what legality were homes of underprivileged people demolished in Karachi," Bilawal questioned as he referred to the judgments passed by ex-CJP Gulzar Ahmed that led to the demolition of Nasla Tower - a residential building - as well as homes in working class neighbourhoods of Gujjar and Orangi nullahs.

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Bilawal said in his 18 months as the foreign minister he had witnessed the country’s potential himself. “This country will not be able to prosper if politics of hatred and division is not done away with,” he noted.

Bilawal maintained that poverty, unemployment and inflation would not end if “we continue to fight among ourselves”. He said former prime minister Imran Khan failed because the PTI and PDM were at each other’s throats.

Claiming that the PPP would create economic opportunities by collaborating with the private sector, the party chairman said the country will be successful only when the government invest in the public sector.