STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD Reaffirming his party’s faith in politics and democracy, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said he believes 2020 is the year of “tabdeeli” (change). In an interview, Bilawal said: “The way the PTI government has forcefully thrust this IMF deal on us, with the way taxes are being raised, the way of life is being taken out of our economy, because of that we believe the people of this country cannot tolerate this government for very long. “I believe the most important thing is that people are on the same page and right now the Pakistani public is very tired [of this government].” Bilawal said opposition parties and the people of Pakistan had several options, of which the most talked about is “in-house change [and] secondly new elections”. When asked whether he thought any deal was being made in London after news of several prominent personalities’ visits to the city emerged, the PPP cochairman said: “I do not know anything, I believe these are conspiratorial talks. Decision makers should only be the people of Pakistan.” Referring to his party’s decision to launch a protest march next month against the PTI-led government, Bilawal said his target was “taking the condition of the economy and our party’s stance to the public”. “Our struggle against this inflation and the IMF budget will acquire a new angle during the march”, he added. “As soon as I said this, Imran Khan’s NAB sent us a notice, tried to put us under pressure, tried to threaten us but we are not ready to back down”, the PPP chairman said. He criticised the PTI-led government’s IMF [deal], saying the government was “incapable” of negotiating the deal. Bilawal said his party had rejected the “PTI-IMF deal for the way it compromised on the rights of the people of Pakistan […] attacked the economic sovereignty of the country”. He called for the government to leave the deal and renegotiate it afresh and to bring forward a “people-friendly plan according to Pakistan’s economic sovereignty”. Bilawal denied he had knowledge of any pact made between the government and Maulana Fazlur Rehman last year. Bilawal said that the state should not be run through conspiracies rather it should be run according to the wishes of the people.
