F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari fired shots at PTI chief Imran Khan in an interview to a private television channel, claiming that the former cricketer was the only politician who had not offered his condolences after his mother Benazir Bhutto had died.
In his first ever interview a private news channel, Bilawal Bhutto said that PTI chief Imran Khan had introduced the politics of bad language in Pakistan which he was trying to end. “I’m trying to bring back the politics of decency in the country and to engage the youth in it,” he said.
Bilawal slammed Imran Khan, stating in the interview that a lot of time and money had been invested in making the cricketer-turned-politician a leader of national stature. “Edhi sahab’s interview is on record in which he said that Imran and Hamid Gul had threatened to kidnap him,” he said.
Regarding the PTI chief, Bilawal said that Imran had penned an opinion piece for a British newspaper one day after the Karsaz attack, blaming his mother Benazir Bhutto for the people that had been killed.
“When my mother was assassinated, even the Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami came to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to offer his condolences,” he said. “However, he remains the only politician who did not do so.” The Bhutto scion on challenges being faced by Sindh government
In response to a question, Bilawal admitted that there were challenges that the party was facing and that its messages were not being delivered with as much precision as other political parties.
“However, this is not the first time that PPP has been counted out,” he said. “As you remember, we had only 17 seats in the 1997 elections but then in 2002 we emerged with the highest vote count in the country,” he added.
Regarding development projects in Sindh, Bilawal conceded that the province was beset with problems and challenges but he said that the Sindh government was tackling those issues.
“The media perception that the best governance is being followed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and then Punjab is wrong,” he said. “In Sindh, the government does take steps to address challenges,” he added.
He spoke of how there were hospitals in Sindh that were offering free treatment to the poor and said that the media should do a little to provide credit to the PPP where it deserved. “Criticising us is your right as journalists but please where it is due, give us a little credit as well,” he said.
The Bhutto scion rejected any possibility that PPP was in favour of a technocratic setup in the country and said that he was quite sure elections would be held according to schedule in Pakistan.
“If there were to be a technocratic setup, PPP and I will be the first to stand up against it,” he said.
Bilawal said that it was not possible for him to support any technocratic setup since he was chairman of PPP, a party that had always opposed dictatorship and stood for democracy in the country.
“How is possible for the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the son of Benazir Bhutto to support a technocratic setup?” he asked.
