MULTAN: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal
Bhutto-Zardari deplored that religion was being used to play politics in
the country and said that the PPP did not believe in linking religion
with politics.
“When a politician says that Islam is in
danger, I like to quote Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who said that Islam could
not be in danger in a country where 90 per cent of the population is
Muslim,” he said, while addressing a public gathering at Qila Kohna
Qasim Bagh Stadium in Multan on Friday. The PPP chairperson regretted
that extremism and sectarianism were being promoted in the country.
Lashing
out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said
that Imran Khan was an ideological soldier of Maulana Samiul Haq. Mr
Khan talked about the importance of politics of principles, but he
should learn the principles of politics, as politics too had principles,
he said.
It was unfortunate that even though Mr Khan
spoke highly of the country’s youth, he had no vision for their uplift,
the PPP leader said, adding: “Employment and education are two major
concerns of the youth which comprises 60pc of the country’s
population...after coming to power we will give the youth equal
opportunities of employment and education.”
He took a
jibe at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief, saying that Nawaz Sharif
claimed that his politics was grounded in ideology, but he probably did
not know what the word ideology meant. The PPP leader said that Mr
Sharif’s ideology had disgraced parliament by turning the parliament
house into a camp office of the Ittefaq Foundry. “Parliament is weak and
the masses are suffering only because of you,” he exclaimed.
PPP leaders promise new province for Seraiki belt
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that the PML-N had vociferously
opposed the establishment of a separate province, and that Punjab Chief
Minister Shahbaz Sharif was responsible for backwardness of south
Punjab. “The budget for planting flowers in Lahore is higher than the
health budget of south Punjab,” he added.
He said that
after coming to power, the PPP would abolish general sales tax on
agriculture, announce support prices for crops before their harvest,
ensure equal distribution of irrigation water and control the
agriculture input cost. He said that instead of introducing corporate
farming his party would introduce cooperative farming which would
benefit small farmers.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari
said: “The country could have ceased to exist had it not been for the
leadership of the PPP, which sacrificed their lives for the sake of
country. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto always spoke about the
masses and the country.”
Lauding ex-prime minister
Yousaf Raza Gilani, Mr Zardari said: “He (Nawaz) is not brave enough
like Makhdoom (Gilani) who did not go around asking why he had been
ousted, like Nawaz Sharif did.”
Addressing Mr Sharif, the PPP leader said: “You have been ousted by Allah through judges with the power of masses.”
He
said that even though the PPP government had completed its five years,
Mr Sharif had been a part of every single conspiracy concocted against
their democratically-elected government. “We did not hitch a conspiracy
against them... they are worried and their speaker has said that the
PML-N government will not complete its term. Now I would say that yes,
the government is going to be dissolved as is evident from Ishaq Dar’s
flight from country,” he said.
Mr Gilani began his
speech in Urdu but switched to Seraiki on the insistence of the
audience. He said that his government had initiated several projects for
the uplift of the Seraiki belt, and promised that his party would make a
separate Punjab province after coming to power.
