LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that the federation of Pakistan is still in danger, and told party workers that “we have to fight against undemocratic forces to save it”.

He was speaking at a PPP workers’ convention in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto late on Sunday evening.

He also announced the name of Jamil Soomro, his political secretary, as the party’s candidate for the PS-11 Larkana-II re-election.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari, without naming any quarters, said that “undemocratic forces are not bearing the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provincial autonomy and rights of federating units”. Therefore, he added, the federation was still in danger.

He claimed that due to Centre’s flawed economic policies, provinces were suffering.

“Sindh has faced Rs100 billion loss,” he said, and noted that Sindh’s gas royalty and its economic rights were robbed.

The PPP chairman said that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) were inclined to separate Sindh’s capital, Karachi, from the province on the pretext of littering. “PPP will stand like a rock against this conspiracy,” he declared in unequivocal terms.

Tells ‘selectors’ to oust PM or PPP will do the job

He said those targeting our leader­ship — Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur — were mistaken to think that such tactics would weaken the party and “force us to bow before them”.

He reminded them that: “we had survived against General Ziaul Haq and Gen Musharraf; and now we are ready to fight against the puppet government”.

“Such actions will not shake us from our principles,” he said, adding that the ‘puppet’ government, despite its efforts, had failed to change the loyalty of party leaders and workers.

Declaring that peoples’ strength was the party’s foundation, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said: “This is my clear message to those who are making attempts to dislodge PPP government in Sindh that it will be only [Syed] Murad Ali Shah who will remain the chief minister from the PPP ... Sindh will not accept any puppet chief minister”.

Cases against father, aunt

Speaking about cases and references against his father and aunt, Mr Bhutto-Zardari claimed that the media was not free.

He argued that if Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur had done anything wrong in Sindh, then why their trial was being held in Rawalpindi.

He also alleged that [ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter] Maryam Nawaz and two MNAs from Fata were kept in jail with the media clamped under control.

He said the ‘selected’ government did not come through people’s vote but was brought in from somewhere else.

He criticised PTI government’s budget saying that it had facilitated the rich and crushed the poor. “Big businessmen are enjoying tax amnesty while the poor are getting no relief,” he observed, and flayed the PTI-led federal government for ignoring its commitments.

The PPP chairman claimed that during [former president] Asif Zardari’s government, pensioners were given relief; salaries of workers were raised; and instead of showering tax amnesties on the rich, the poor were looked after.

‘PTI trying to cover up failures’

He alleged that the PTI government fired thousands of workers instead of offering new jobs; it snatched away peasants’ rights by withdrawing subsidies; and committed economic murder of tillers. With such drastic measures, the government had attempted to cover up its failures, he said.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari asked ‘selectors’ to send the inefficient prime minister packing, “otherwise we will come to Islamabad to send him home.

In his lengthy speech, he highlighted the “political achievements” of his grandfather and PPP founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He said Z.A. Bhutto gave Pakistan a unanimous Cons­ti­tution, made the country a nuc­lear power, brought back captured prisoners of war and liberated occupied lands after successful talks. He also saluted his mother, Benazir Bhutto, for sacrificing her life for democracy and democratic rule in the country.

Announcing that PPP’s candidate for PS-11 Larkana-II re-election will be his political secretary, Jamil Soomro, Mr Bhutto-Zardari asked people of the constituency to inflict a humiliating defeat on “puppet” government and its allies.

He said Mr Soomro had remai­n­ed with Benazir Bhutto for 30 years and was now serving as his political secretary. “He is a humble party worker who is neither a feudal lord nor a business tycoon,” said the party chairman.

PPP’s information secretary Maula Bux Chandio, provincial president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Aajiz Dhamrah, Aijaz Leghari and other leaders also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2019