LAHORE: PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari says the PPP is ready to sacrifice its Sindh government to oust the ‘selected’ rulers.

“We are ready to sacrifice our Sindh government if and when needed in the struggle for getting rid of the selected rulers,” he said while talking to the media here on Wednesday.

He said Imran Khan would have to resign by Jan 31 otherwise the Pakistan Democratic Movement (an 11-party opposition alliance) would announce a long march on Islamabad on Feb 1 to push the ‘incompetent’ government out and the long march would be made successful at all costs.

“The opposition will form a strategy which will not harm democracy. A warning has already been issued to Imran Khan to step down or face the music. There will be ‘dama dam mast qalandar’.”

The PPP chairman, who also phoned PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz to discuss the Senate elections strategy and to invite her to the death anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27, said he visited Shehbaz Sharif in the Kot Lakhpat jail to condole with him on the death of his mother, while the unity of opposition in the country also came under discussion.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the mobilisation of party workers was going very well and Imran Khan would have to resign by Jan 31.

He said the PPP had a history of resistance and its workers struggled against and defeated Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf. He said Dec 16 reminds us of two tragedies for Pakistan – first the fall of Dhaka and the other the martyrdom of students of the Army Public School in Peshawar. He said the APS tragedy was still fresh in our minds and this selected government had failed to provide justice to the bereaved families.

“During this puppet, incapable and illegitimate government, the main culprit of APS tragedy Ehsanullah Ehsan fled the captivity and the country,” he said, adding “this government gives relief to terrorists and imprisons opposition politicians, journalists and bloggers”.

He said the government was doing nothing to give any relief to the people as price hike, unemployment, hunger and poverty were the real issues the people are faced with in this government.

“Pakistan has the highest inflation and lowest growth rate in the region. Pakistan is economically worse than Afghanistan.”

He said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto both knew the politics of resistance as well as the politics of reconciliation.

“We know how to use both approaches. But we reject any dialogue with the puppet government and puppet prime minister, puppet chief minister, and puppet National Assembly speaker.”

He negated the notion that any phone call had ended the long march held for restoration of the judiciary by PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif back in 2009. Rather, he insisted, the PPP leaders had convinced president Zardari to restore the judiciary and afterward, telephone calls were made for face saving of others.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020