BADIN: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, addressing a big gathering in Rahuki, some 42 kilometres from here on Wednesday, said that his party would not leave people of the country at the mercy of corrupt and inept politicians.

The gathering was held to mark the 31st death anniversary of slain peasant leader Fazil Rahu.

Bhutto-Zardari observed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) miserably failed to deliver in its almost five years of the current tenure.

He also lashed out at Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for failing to deliver during the same period of its rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Keeping to raise the slogan of ‘change’, the PTI itself changed, instead, he remarked.

He told the audience that the PTI government did not take any initiative towards opening modern educational institutions in KPK.

He alleged that the ruling party kept dolling out funds to “terrorists” organisations and promoting the entities that opposed secular values and resisted modernity.

31st death anniversary of Fazil Rahu observed in Rahuki

The PPP chairman noted that those at the helm of affairs in KPK did not allow launch Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai. PTI Chief Minister Pervez Khattak even hosted a reception for leaders of certain proscribed organisations in the CM House.

He said PTI leader Imran Khan claimed to have been spearheading a crusade against corruption but had turned a blind eye to the deeds of his party’s minister, who was allegedly involved in corruption.

So much so, Mr Khan still supported his lieutenant Jahangir Tareen by allotting a party ticket to his son.

Bhutto-Zardari claimed that PTI would gain nothing from Shah Mehmood Qurashi. “When he cannot get votes of his followers for himself, then how can he seek their vote for his party chief,” he argued.”Mr Khan should better learn politics from my father, Asif Ali Zardari,” he added.

The PPP chairman also slammed PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif for still asking from everyone as to why he was ousted [as prime minister].

“Ask from your younger brother, instead, Mian Saheb,” said Bhutto-Zardari, and recalled that the younger brother [Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif] had repeatedly been hailing the judiciary over its verdict in the Hudaibiya case while the elder brother [Nawaz Sharif] ridiculing the verdict in the Panama case.

“Even these two brothers are not on the same page,” he wondered.

He said the PML-N government had failed to address the issues of FATA, Azad Kashmir, Balochistan and Sindh during its current tenure.

Nor could it chalk out a good foreign policy, he added.

He said Mian Sahib always made promises to the people of Sindh and never kept his words. Sharif [while being the PM] had announced a Rs2 billion package for Tharis, a huge package for Sujawal and Thatta districts and similar packages for some other parts of Sindh but all these commitments proved false, he said.

Bhutto-Zardari also noted that the Nawaz-led government did not release Sindh’s share in the NFC Award and also denied the province of its rightful share in the Indus water.

Bilawal said that a group of political orphans formed a GDA came just like frogs from the whole have joined with three former Chief Ministers to counter the PPP would never go successful.

Regarding the development in Sindh Bilawal Bhutto said Sindh government has constructed four main bridges on Indus River and also Thalassemia Care Centre, 300 bed hospital and college.

The PPP chairman also paid rich tributes to Fazil Rahu, and recalled that the popular peasant leader had played an active role in the PPP-led Movement for the Restoration of Democracy.

He was a close associate of the then PPP co-chairperson Benazir Bhutto and had great respect in the peasant community.

“Rahu was eliminated at the behest of a dictator in a similar way my mother was assassinated and grandfather was executed,” he said.

Earlier, Bhutto-Zardari accompanied by Fazil Rahu’s son, Ismail Rahu, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Senior Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Senator Sassui Palijo, MNA Naveed Qamar, Dr Sikander Mandhro, Syed Nasir Shah, Arbab Lutufullah and others, laid a wreath on the grave of Fazil Rahu and offered fateha.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018