RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Monday that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would have to go home by the end of December as it had failed to deliver.

He was talking to reporters outside Adiala jail where he met his father and former president Asif Ali Zardari. He was accompanied by Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and other PPP leaders.

In reply to a question about the Supreme Court order suspending the election tribunal’s decision to unseat National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, the PPP chairman said the former was selected, not elected, in the election, and after having been unseated he was selected again.

According to him, selected people were afraid of elections as they got nothing when ballot boxes were opened. There was a difference between elected and selected leaders, he added.

Says PPP will support JUI-F’s anti-govt march

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that the PTI government was afraid of its opponents and that was why it put blame on them. He said the PTI accused other political parties of receiving funds from Indian intelligence agency RAW, but its own funding was questionable.

He said that due to incompetence of the PTI government, India dared to revoke the special status of held Kashmir. He said the government should have taken the Kashmir issue seriously. He said some government ministers were now talking about relations with Israel.

He said the PTI government did not make any effort to save Pakistan from being put on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) despite the passage of several months. He criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan for giving a statement that Al Qaeda was trained by the Pakistan Army and the ISI.

Speaking about Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam’s (JUI-F) anti-government long march, the PPP chairman said that his party would support it. The PPP’s stance on the JUI-F’s long march was very clear, he said. “We are against the politics of sit-ins, but if the government continues putting its political opponents in jail there will be no option for us but to stage a sit-in and send the government packing,” he said, adding that his party would never compromise on democracy and the freedom of expression.

He said that in the past Mr Khan had given statements that he would provide containers and food to those who would launch protest movement against his government, adding that now it was time for the prime minister to prove his words.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that there was no difference between former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf and PM Khan as they both had the same agenda which was to weaken democracy in the country and victimise their political opponents. They both put their political opponents behind bars because they could not tolerate criticism.

Talking about his father’s health, he said that the former president was being victimised as he was not provided any facility in jail which was his right under the law. According to doctors’ advice, Mr Zardari needed medical treatment as he was suffering from cardiac problems and other ailments. The court had also issued directives to provide him medical treatment and other facilities, but the government was denying him even his basic rights, he added.

“This is the Riyasat-i-Madina of the PTI where a captured pilot of enemy India was given all facilities on the basis of human rights, but a country’s former president was not given even his basic rights,” he regretted.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019