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LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has advised politicians to join hands to solve the country’s problems and emphasised the need for judicial reforms.
Addressing a seminar on “Bhutto Reference and History” at Al-Hamra Hall on Sunday, he regretted that the politics of hatred is on the rise in the country, leaving no room for respecting differences of opinion.
“Politics has not been allowed to remain as politics. Rather, it has been turned into personal enmity.”
He said the Supreme Court gave a historic verdict on the Bhutto case as a result of the long struggle of party workers and on the reference sent to the court by Mr Zardari during his first term as president. And the verdict came when Mr Zardari became president for the second time, he added.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari pointed out that the Supreme Court admitted that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not get a fair trial and that he was judicially murdered.
He called for judicial reforms to avert judicial murders in the future.
“Our demand is for judicial reforms. Either the judiciary should come up with a reforms agenda or parliament should do the needful through a constitutional amendment.”
As a matter of fact, it is the responsibility of parliament to introduce judicial reforms as agreed upon in the “charter of democracy”, he said, adding that “if we do not do judicial reforms, there will be excesses like the judicial killing of Mr Bhutto.”
He said PPP has always tried to improve the system in a democratic way. Parliament is an important institution for legislation and constitutional amendments, and the party would do whatever it could to fix the system.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that President Asif Zardari had sent a message of reconciliation to all politicians in his address to parliament. But, some politicians do not believe in reconciliation even in the national interest, he lamented, adding that President Zardari’s message of reconciliation was given an inappropriate response.
He said there is a need for dialogue instead of hatred and abuse. Politicians have to join hands to solve problems of people who are worried about inflation, unemployment, and poverty.
“If politicians do not join hands with each other, the problems will not be solved. Instead of abusing each other and indulging in blame games, they should think of Pakistan. But some politicians are not ready to see beyond their own person.”
The PPP chairman said that his party had presented a 10-point agenda in the last election campaign but it was criticised by political rivals. He recalled the 10-point agenda included a “Kissan card”.
He said that today farmers were protesting but if the “Kissan card” had been introduced in all the four provinces, they would not have such a big problem. He said whether the PPP was in power or in the opposition, it desired to play a positive role.
Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024
