HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is now left with only two options — tender resignations from parliament or support PPP in bringing a no-confidence motion against Punjab chief minister first and then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Speaking at a press conference at Sardar Saleem Jan Mazari’s residence in Kashmore on the last leg of his Sindh tour on Tuesday, he said if PDM did not agree to these options, the masses would realise that it was only wasting their time like what it had done with PPP.

Bilawal demanded free and fair general elections in the country arguing that “the masses can no more afford burden of the incompetent government thrust upon them through rigging”.

‘Tendering lawmakers’ resignations is the only other option’

He observed that his tour proved that people wanted a poor-friendly government, and said that it was only a PPP government that could provide them relief. He said people had pinned hopes on PPP now when they had seen performance of Imran Khan’s government and those of the others in the past. “Now masses want economic policies of PPP [to be pursued by a new] leadership,” he claimed.

Freedom of press

The PPP chairman condemned government’s plans to impose new curbs on media through legislation. The federal government had introduced an ordinance which would undermine the print and electronic media and would curb press freedom, he pointed out, adding that not only this, the government wanted to ban vloggers, thus undermining their source of income.

“PPP condemns and rejects this new law. It will raise its voice against the law in parliament and also take the matter to the judiciary, if need be; we will never accept it,” he said.

Bilawal also criticised the PTI government for burdening the poor masses with hike in fuel, electricity and petrol prices besides causing unemployment.

Long march plan

Answering a question about PDM’s announcement of holding a long march, he expressed the hope that the opposition alliance’s political activity would somehow affect the PTI government. “But we feel confused ... a long march was announced earlier too, and preparations were made. When we defeated Imran Khan in the National Assembly and exposed his weakness before the world, while the long march was also ready, [our] friends suddenly came up with proposal at nick of time. They linked the march with resignations and eventually it was cancelled,” he recalled.

“Now when the PDM has again announced its plan to hold a long march, it is hoped they [PDM component parties] would tender resignations from the assemblies; otherwise announcing and then backtracking on long march repeatedly would be politically damaging to the opposition,” he said.

The PPP chairman said there must be clarity and consistency in the opposition’s ranks, otherwise masses and opposition parties would remain confused.

“When PDM was intact, they were saying that resignations are mandatory but PPP insisted that the movement can remove [PTI] government through parliament. But they differed,” he said.

He claimed that PDM had been making gains and the PTI government was facing constant defeats until PPP had been in the PDM.

‘PDM lost ground after PPP parted ways’

“Our PDM friends [at that time] insisted they would boycott by-elections but PPP advised them against it; eventually the opposition parties won by-elections right from Fata to Pishin and from Karachi to Daska.” He said opposition was serious at that time and masses were responding to its calls. He said government had been defeated in National Assembly. Unfortunately the opposition alliance lost consistency and then confusion was seen because everyone had a separate narrative; and this forced people to reject the confusion, he observed, and pointed out that PDM later lost the by-polls it had contested without PPP being in the fold.

“We believe in seriousness and bona fide intentions,” he said, and added: if the opposition becomes serious, comes up with a no-confidence motion against [Punjab CM] Usman Buzdar first and then PM, we can remove these “selected ones” and restore democracy.

Cadet college and roads

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said he was happy to see a cadet college in Kashmore and would soon inaugurate it. He said in his journey to this city, roads looked good, barring a patch. He said infrastructure had improved although there was a wide room for further improvement.

He said the provincial anticorruption department would also introduce an online application for receiving corruption-related complaints. Besides the NFC and 18th Amendment issues, water shortage was a burning issue for which the Sindh PPP had already announced a protest plan.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2021