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Published 22 May, 2012 09:02pm

Bilawal urges Obama to apologise to Pakistan

NEW YORK. May 22: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party, has called on US President Barack Obama to show “some courage” and apologise to Pakistan for the Nato air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Salala and bring US-Pakistan relations back on track.

“Pakistan deserves an apology,” he said.

Bilawal Zardari also called for an end to the drone attacks inside the Pakistani territory, saying they were illegal and violated international law and even the US’s war powers act.

He maintained that Pakistan was committed to fighting and eliminating terrorism, but US drone attacks were creating difficulties.

Bilawal Zardari said that his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had struggled for democracy and women’s rights in Pakistan.

Talking to correspondents at the residence of PPP (USA) President Shafqat Tanvir on Monday, he said the PPP was determined to resolving the issue of power shortage immediately.

He said he had come to New York primarily to attend a Peabody award ceremony honouring the documentary ‘Bhutto’ made by Marc Segal on his mother’s struggle to return Pakistan to rule of law and democracy. Noting that the power and fuel problems were the remnants of previous regimes, he recalled that during his mother Benazir’s first tenure “Pakistan had surplus power and was thinking of exporting it to India”.

On questions about the PPP government’s inability to bring to justice Benazir Bhutto’s killer, he said progress was being made to bring all those responsible to justice. He dismissed reports of PPP leadership’s responsibility in the case as propaganda of the opposition.

Extolling the virtues of his mother, Bilawal said: “My mother lived and died fighting for democracy, for human rights, for women’s rights, for moderation against extremism, for modernity against ignorance, for a future better than any of the pasts we have ever known.”

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