Supporters of PPP cheer during the speech of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on the foundation day of the party in Bilawal House Karachi on Saturday. PHOTO: PPI
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari used a party confab on Saturday to deliver a scathing attack on his political foes and denounce the incumbent government’s rightist fiscal policies.
He was addressing a gathering at Bilawal House, Karachi, on the occasion of the Pakistan Peoples Party 47th Foundation Day, the zealous Bilawal took to criticising the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s privatisation policy, among other things. “In the name of privatisation, the government wants to gift our national assets to its own friends,” he claimed, which had replicated the vision of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who founded the party on leftist-socialist political ideals.
The poverty level is increasing with each passing day and the exchange rate of the US dollar has reached an all-time high of Rs110, he said. “The poor are excluding potatoes and tomatoes from their staple diet, because of soaring prices. I request the government to put the burden on people like me, not the poor who sleep with empty stomachs.”
Regarding his own party, Bilawal touted the fact that the Pakistan Peoples Party has no factions like other political parties. “There is no N, Q and F after PPP that could bring about the downfall of the party.”
Responding to critics, he said, “Our political rivals say that I cannot understand the people’s language. Let me know if you cannot hear and understand me? They do not know that we (the people and his party leadership) share the relation of love and blood.”
The PPP is a passion, not the legacy of a player (khiladi), mullah, investor or landowner, he bellowed.
Before the 2018 general elections, the PPP would prove that it still lives in the hearts of common people of Pakistan, he assured his followers. “Though the incumbent government’s policies are pushing the country backward, our jiyalas will overcome all crises and win the race in the upcoming elections,” he said.
After his bombastic speech and address by other PPP leaders, a cake-cutting ceremony took place.
PPP Naheed Khan group
Contrary to what Bilawal said about PPP not having factions, some 500 workers of the Naheed Khan group gathered to commemorate the founding of the party.
In Lahore, the PPP and its splinter faction led by Naheed Khan held separate celebrations of the party’s 46th Foundation Day on Saturday, with the former praising ex-president Asif Ali Zardari and the latter accusing him of damaging the PPP brand.
At the PPP event organised by the party’s Punjab president Mian Manzoor Wattoo, leaders made speeches praising Zardari’s services as well as recounting the party’s achievements since it was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Some participants in the PPP function were critical of the arrangements, for which they blamed Wattoo. The few dozen workers in attendance also got into a squabble and disrupted the event.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2013.
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