LAHORE: Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh claims that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari may come to Punjab and use, what he termed, the looted money to buy loyalties of some legislators to topple the PTI government.

He was speaking at a news conference, flanked by Senator Ejaz Chaudhry at PTI Punjab office here on Saturday.

Mr Sheikh said Bilawal had already said he would be coming to Punjab to get walkover.

He said the PPP with seven seats in Punjab had no power to damage the PTI government but he wanted to use the looted money.

In the past 13 years, he added, the PPP as per the Auditor General’s report had looted some Rs1.4tr from the Rs8.9tn budgets.

“Of Rs1.6tr development budget, the PPP squandered some Rs700bn– 44pc,” he said and added this money could be used in Punjab to buy legislators and voters’ loyalties.

Mr Sheikh said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was directly responsible for 341 drone attacks in Afghanistan. Being an opposition leader, he said, whenever he asked the Sindh government for some development work, he was asked to arrange money first.

He also stated that the Sindh government was not inclined to give health insurance cards to the people of Sindh.

Mr Sheikh also said that every activity in Sindh was in full swing but schools were closed as the Sindh government feared that if poor Sindhis were offered education, they would know the reality and would not vote for the PPP.

Senator Ejaz Chaudhry said Prime Minister Imran Khan always wanted to resolve issues through dialogue instead of using power.

He said the PM was following a policy of noninterference in the internal matters of Afghanistan and added that all the stakeholders in Afghanistan should reach an amicable solution through dialogue.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2021