ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday blasted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi over his remarks in the Senate in which he had accused the PPP of trying to play the Sindh card during the coronavirus situation in the country, asking the minister either to retract his statement or resign.

“I want the [foreign] minister to take back his words. If he can’t take it back, then resign. Such statements are damaging the federation,” said the young PPP chairman during a news conference at Zardari House hours after the Senate proceedings where the foreign minister, while responding to the criticism by PPP’s Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, had lashed out at the PPP and accused it of fanning provincialism.

Mr Qureshi, who had served at the same position during the last PPP government under former president Asif Ali Zardari, had made more or less the same remarks during the National Assembly session on Monday, but the PPP chairman, who had spoken after the minister’s speech, had not responded to him in the same tone which he used at the press conference.

“This is not the PPP of the past, which was a symbol of the federation. Today, I sense the roots of provincialism in the party,” the foreign minister had stated.

“Karachi is as much ours as it is yours. Sindh is ours. Sindh’s capital is ours; even now the people of Karachi support PTI and our allied party MQM,” he said, asking the PPP to “get ready” as the PTI would also make inroads in Sindh, “just like we did in Punjab and KP”.

FM terms PPP chief’s tirade ‘childish’

Mr Bhutto-Zardari “condemned” the minister’s remarks and termed them “unacceptable”.

“When I talk about Sindh, they accuse me of playing the Sindh card. But when I talk about Balochistan or Khyber Pakthunkhwa or Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Kashmir, they don’t accuse me of playing the provincial card,” he went on saying.

The PPP chairman regretted that the minister was issuing such statements at a time when they needed “national unity”.

“At a time when I am extending my hand for cooperation, they are slapping me,” he said.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that at a time when they were trying to save the people from coronavirus, “this man is talking about proving political mettle”.

The PPP chairman then claimed that he knew the reasons as to why Mr Qureshi had left the PPP.

“When he was our minister, we know who approached him and fueled his dreams of becoming a future prime minister of the country,” he said, alleging that the minister was doing now the same with the PTI and Prime Minister Imran Khan which he had done with the PPP government in the past.

Qureshi’s Response

Meanwhile, Mr Qureshi termed the remarks of the PPP chairman “meaningless, emotional and childish”.

Talking to a private TV channel, Mr Qureshi said there was a need to talk on national issues and not on personal matters.

“Why is Bilawal worrying about the PTI? Do not worry about the PTI. There is no change in Imran Khan’s position in the PTI,” he explained, adding that Imran Khan enjoyed complete confidence of the party members, including him.

Responding to the demand of the PPP chairman to retract his words or resign, the foreign minister said that he wasn’t aware as to what wrong he had stated. He justified his remarks in the National Assembly and the Senate, saying that he had simply asked the opposition to give solid proposals for handling the Covid-19 situation.

Mr Qureshi said that he had quit the party while taking a “principled stand” on the issue of the US national Raymond Davis who had killed two Pakistanis in Lahore and then expatriated to the US.

Zardari’s health

Responding to a question regarding the health condition of his father and former president Asif Zardari in the wake of some reports circulating on social media, the PPP chairman said his father’s condition was “better” than it was previously when he was in Islamabad.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the World Health Organisation through its guidelines had advised the people with underlying conditions to not leave their houses at all.

“[Former] President Zardari suffers from underlying conditions such as diabetes and cardiac complications,” he said. Similarly, he said, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif was a cancer patient, which was why they both had refrained from attending the assembly session.

On the other hand, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan got his salary from parliament and still did not attend it. He alleged that the prime minister was using the poor in order to benefit the elite during the lockdown situation. He said the PM had met businessmen and industrialists, but not met representatives of farmers or trade unions.

Mr Khan, he alleged, was trying to woo the industrialists and fulfilling their demands by giving construction package to Anil Musarrat and other construction tycoons in the name of relief package.

“On the other hand, we in Sindh, wanted to give a corona relief package and wanted to provide relief to the people of Sindh, but the federal government tried to sabotage our efforts. The governor did not sign the package. We do not want to get into any debate and we will again send that package to the governor. You have delayed relief for the people of Sindh,” he alleged.

Locust attack

The PPP chairman said that after 25 years, there had been a locust attack in the country and the plant protection was a federal subject.

He said the federal government was given one year to prepare and it had promised that it would send six planes, but only one plane had been provided to them, and that too without a pilot.

He said there had been locust attacks in Balochistan as well and the federal government had not helped the province at all. “The way the federal government has not helped in the Covid-19 situation, similarly, no help has been offered during these locust attacks,” he said.

He also shared pictures showing the locust attacks in different parts of Sindh, including Larkana, Jamshoro, Shikarpur and Khairpur.

“When the NDMA had claimed that it was preparing for the locust attacks, why is it that no preparation can be seen?” he asked.

Responding to a question, he said the federal government had stirred the controversy over the 18th Amendment to hide its failure.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2020