KARACHI, Dec 15: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari invited on Sunday all political rivals, including the prime minister, to an “apolitical” Sindh Festival to be held in February.

“I invite the prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, among others, to participate in our Sindh Festival. All Pakistanis are invited,” he said at an event while unveiling plans for the festival.

Held at the Mohatta Palace in Clifton, the colourful event was attended by national and international dignitaries and PPP leaders. Bilawal hosted the event along with his sister Bakhtawar.

On the occasion, he said that for the first time in years Karachi would be hosting Basant, and that too on the beach, and spoke about how it was banned by the provincial government in Punjab.

“I have realised that Pakistan is gradually moving towards becoming ‘banistan’. If we find someone offensive on YouTube, we ban the website. If we can’t compete with the Indian cinema, we ban movies. And if we see people having fun at weddings, we ban weddings,” he added with a smile, pointing towards where Sindh Assembly speaker and acting governor Agha Siraj Durrani and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah were seated.

The event started with Bilawal making a speech about the gradual degradation of the archaeological site, Mohenjodaro, which he said is “disappearing before our eyes”.

It was followed by a small but impassioned speech by a German professor and an authority on Indus valley civilisation, Dr Michael Jansen.

Bilawal announced that opening ceremony of the Sindh Festival 2014 would be held in Mohenjodaro. “Let’s bask in the glory of Indus civilisation. Let’s live in the Pakistan we want to see. Move away London 2012, we have Mohenjodaro 2014,” he said to a cheering audience.

Bilawal said that Pakistanis were being dragged backwards, towards “more regressive dark ages”.

“We have been taught distorted history about our culture and religion by military dictators like Ziaul Haq, and his protégés. They want to put a gun to our heads and impose their rules on us. But we won’t let them,” he added.

Introducing the events to be held during the two-week festival, Bakhtawar said it would have “best of what Sindh and Pakistan has to offer”. She said the festival would have a cattle race, grand Mushaira, donkey cart race, deep sea fishing tournament, etc. It will be held in various parts of Sindh and Karachi.

Handicrafts and work of poor craftsmen will be arranged at Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim in Karachi. Free stalls will be given to craftsmen from Sindh to showcase their work.

“We don’t need anything from them in return. They will get the entire return for what they sell,” Bilawal said.

Bilawal introduced a number of artistes and cricketer Wasim Akram to announce their part of the programme.