PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has revealed that he was offered to lead the next possible coalition government as the prime minister for two years. However, he declined the offer as his party only wants to ensure democracy and the survival of the federation.
"If I have to become the prime minister, I will want the people of Pakistan to elect me to that position,” Bilawal said on Sunday while addressing a public meeting in Thatta district of Sindh organized to celebrate the PPP’s landslide election victory in the province.
After the Feb 8 general elections, the PML-N and the PPP respectively emerged as the largest and the second-largest party in the National Assembly.
The parties, together with the MQM, the IPP, the PML-Q, and BAP, later agreed to form a coalition government with the two leading parties holding talks to decide a power-sharing formula.
Talking with reference to these negotiations, Bilawal said the PPP does not want federal ministries in return for supporting the PML-N’s candidate for the position of the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
"We only want to ensure that democracy and the federation survive. We want to extinguish the fire [of division and hatred] which is spreading in Pakistan. This is why we have decided that [PPP Co-chairman] Asif Ali Zardari will be the party’s candidate for president," he added.
He expressed hope that his father, after assuming the presidency, will not only be able to douse the raging flames of political differences but also save the federation. "Once again, we have to raise the slogan of Pakistan Khappay [we want Pakistan]."
After the assassination of Bilawal’s mother—PPP former chairperson Benazir Bhutto—in December 2007 in a bomb attack in Rawalpindi, Zardari had famously raised the Pakistan Khappay slogan to douse the flames of communal hatred in Sindh, to which Benazir belonged.
Referring to the protests against rigging initiated by various parties in Sindh, Bilawal likened the post-Feb 8 elections situation with the events of 1977 when his grandfather and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's victory was denied, and the circumstances paved the way for martial law.
Read more: PPP urges SC to take notice of Pir Pagara’s statement
"Bhutto had won the elections but when the Nine Stars alliance [Pakistan National Alliance, which comprised nine political parties] started a campaign, the democratic process was rolled back, and the country had to bear with the dictatorship of Ziaul Haq for over 10 years."
Bilawal contended that the politicians who look towards dictatorship to get power still exist.
"When they talk about rigging today, they are actually demanding that a dictatorship-like system should be established in the country."
He appealed to all political parties to try to find solutions to their issues in the democratic dispensation.
In the same breath, he warned the people that if the tendency for seeking undemocratic solutions continued, some elements would keep dividing them in the names of religion, sect, and ethnicity.
He later sought a promise from the Jiyalas—PPP’s loyalists—that they will take to the streets on his call if democracy faces some serious threat.
The PPP's chairman said they tried a lot to help PTI founder Imran Khan understand the need to strengthen democracy and parliament, but to no avail.
He claimed that even till today Imran’s party appeared non-serious as its leaders claim that they have won the elections and can singularly form the central government and that too without the PPP's votes.
"We have decided to support those who have come to us and asked for our votes. But we will take no ministries and will pursue no personal interests except the public interests and the basic issues."
Also read: PML-N, PPP fail to reach consensus on govt formation
Politics in Sindh
Taking reference to Sindh, where the PPP swept the polls, he said he did not know about Pakistan, but the Sindh government was going to be formed on the basis of Form 45, tacitly conveying his distrust of election results in Punjab while simultaneously asserting the authenticity of the election results in Sindh.
Commenting on the ongoing protests staged by the GDA, the JUI-F, and the JI against alleged rigging in Sindh, Bilawal asked leaders of these parties to substantiate their allegations with evidence. He expressed his readiness to go for by-polls at such constituencies.
In a rejoinder to the allegations of GDA's leader Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi against the PPP’s alleged role in rigging, Bilawal said Pagara and even his deceased father faced electoral defeats at the hands of his mother--Benazir Bhutto—and grandfather Zulfiqar Bhutto.
He recalled the results of the 2002, 2008, 2013, and 2018 general elections and said despite rigging by the GDA and the PML-Functional, which is now a part of the GDA, they lost all those elections to the PPP.
"Mullah (JUI-F's Rashid Mehmood Soomro) was demanding one seat in each division [of the province], and Pir Sahab was demanding 10 seats," he claimed, referring to some back channel communications among these parties.
The PPP's chairman also revealed an episode of an interaction with Pir Pagara's brother Sadaruddin Shah Rashdi some years ago and quoted him as saying that "at present we are against you but in the end we will be with you".
Bilawal argued that both the JUI-F and the GDA are mistaken about their electoral support in the province because they only keep in sight their public meetings which are attended by the students enrolled in the seminaries and the spiritual followers of Pir Pagara.
According to him, neither such students have the right to vote for the JUI-F nor the spiritual followers can be assumed with certainty to become voters.
— Pakistan Peoples Party - PPP (@PPP_Org) February 18, 2024
He also responded to the JUI-F's claim that Bilawal was even defeated in his family's constituency in Larkana by Soomro. "What type of joke is it? On the one hand you call yourself a maulana and on the other hand you tell a lie so firmly."
He pointed out that he has won NA-194 Larkana with a lead of around 100,000 votes against Soomro.
He invited both the GDA and the JUI-F for a contest in the by-elections on one of the two NA seats which he will vacate either from Larkana or from Qambar-Shahdadkot NA-196 where he defeated Rashid Mahmood Soomro's brother.
Bilawal said his party is being accused of perpetrating violence during the polling but these claims run contrary to fact. He said his workers Shiraz Awan, Abdul Malik Mari, Raza Khoso, and Bilawal Zardari were killed in Karachi, Khairpur, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, and Naushehro Feroze districts.
A bomb was exploded in Mastung while his candidates and workers came under grenade attacks in Turbat, Bolan, Quetta, and Khuzdar in Balochistan.
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