Staff Reporter Badin
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Wednesday that the PPP was not answerable to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz or PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and that his stance remained unchanged.
Addressing a press conference in Badin, Bilawal was responding to a question from a reporter on Maryam’s recent comments that the PPP had not responded to the show cause notice sent to it and had shown her support to comments by Pakistan Democratic Movement Secretary General Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Abbasi had said on Tuesday that there was no place for the PPP within the opposition alliance until it restored the trust it had betrayed.
He said that the PDM had sought a response from the PPP, which Bilawal had torn into pieces. “We had asked for a response.
Join together the torn pieces [of the show-cause notice], read it and give us the clarification we had sought,” Abbasi had said.
In Wednesday’s press conference, the PPP chairman acknowledged that he had torn the show cause notice and there was no change in his stance on the PDM. “We are not answerable to Maryam or Mian Sahab.
We are answerable to the PPP and the PPP’s workers and we think the real joy will be in doing politics together with the PPP’s workers.”
Bilawal said that Shehbaz Sharif was the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and the PML-N president, thus the PPP would consider his stance and statements to be official PML-N policy and conduct its politics according to that.
He added that the PPP respected Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the two parties had had a “good relationship and contact”.
Bilawal said, however, that the PPP was engaging in politics based on its vision, principles, with respect and “we don’t change our stance.”
He called on those who wanted democracy to flourish, civilian supremacy and actually wanted to oppose Prime Minister Imran Khan to “instead of opposing the PPP, our friends in the opposition should target the government.”
Bilawal also said he was grateful to the Sindh government, law department and the journalist community for the bill for the protection of journalists being approved by the committee in the Sindh Assembly.
“This will hopefully become law after being passed by the Sindh Assembly. It is with great sadness that we have to pass such bills in the 21st century, when you should get all protection according to the Constitution.”
