Expresses reservations over budget; Urges coalition partners to gear up for elections; Addresses rally in Swat
Pakistan People’s Party Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has criticised his government’s economic team saying that no funds were allocated for 2022 flood victims in the federal budget unveiled by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar last week.
Addressing a PPP rally in Swat on Saturday, Bilawal said, “People’s Party sent its high-level delegation to the prime minister yesterday to [raise concerns] that PPP has very little input in the budget,” he added.
Bilawal said the federal government had made promises to the provincial governments last year that it would help the flood victims. “I was surprised to know that no funds were allocated for any province for flood reconstruction,” he added.
Bilawal said he had directed his party members to apprise the prime minister of PPP’s concerns regarding budget saying that the rehabilitation of flood victims was inevitable for economic growth.
“I have no doubt on prime minister’s intention…but members of his [PM Shehbaz Sharif] team are not fulfilling their promises and prime minister should hold them answerable,” he remarked.
“If Muslim League wants PPP to vote for this budget then its’ not possible without allocating funds for flood reconstruction,” the PPP chief cautioned.
The PPP chairman also expressed hope that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other members of government’s economic team would soon address the party’s reservations over the budget.
He called on coalition partners to gear up for the upcoming general elections so that the next government derives solutions to the problems faced by the people.
Bilawal said that his party is gearing up for the elections and is ready to make history just as it did in the recently-held LG elections.
The foreign minister said that strict action should be taken against terrorists and “political terrorists”. “The people of Swat know that whenever
the common, poor people were taken care of, it was during the PPP’s rule. It was during the tenures of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto when the people of Swat attained ownership rights as well as employment,” he added.
Bilawal said that the selected puppet, a term he uses for former prime minister Imran Khan, snatched jobs from the people.
“In the past four years, it is unfortunate that neither the PTI nor the government had the space for people who wanted to see their land, Swat, prosper. In contrast, those who had materialistic aspirations would tag along with Imran Khan,” he added.
He said that the PPP made the decision to wipe out all those who wished to colour the Swat valley red with blood. “Our sacrifices and those rendered by the police and Army led to the establishment of peace in the region. However, Khan brought back the very same terrorists who we had chased out.
Bilawal said that the government was willing to work with Afghanistan on a bilateral level to bring economic prosperity in the region by realising the importance of peace and security.
“We need to extend the message of peace to the terrorists, to convince them to drop their weapons. We do not wish to hold another operation or initiate another war; the people have had enough of those and now deserve peace. However, we are not willing to bow before any terrorists for the sake of peace. We know that PPP and the people of Swat share the same sentiments as neither have surrendered before terrorism. We also need to put a stop to the newly introduced political terrorism.”
He said that each and every citizen of Pakistan condemned the tragedy of May 9 and all stakeholders as well as political parties share the same views to make an example out of the culprits.
“If they are forgiven once, then there would be no rule of law, government or democracy in the country.
“We believe that the PPP is not competing with any other entity or political party, but with hunger, poverty, inflation and unemployment. The day that we eradicate these problems with the help of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s manifesto is not far,” he added.
He said that the majority of the country’s population is constituted of youngsters and it is the PPP’s priority to integrate them into the decision-making process.
“In fourteen months, a young foreign minister has achieved what no other predecessor could. There is huge potential all over the world and we know just how willing the world is to work and cooperate with us. When we were combating climate catastrophes, the world stood with us at a time when certain circles were predicting that it was too busy with the Russia-Ukraine conflict to pay us any heed,” he maintained.
Bilawal said that the world needs young people, it wants both low-skilled and high-skilled people, with the only condition of us stabilising ourselves.
“We will surely work together and strive to show our elders that when given the opportunity, youngsters can make the most of it. When a young politician had proposed to bring forth a no-confidence motion to drive out the selected puppet, it was met by scepticism by the elders but it is this very democratic path that proved to be successful.”
