F.P. Report
KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced that the party will organise a march against the government’s economic policies which have burdened the people of the country.
Speaking at a ceremony inaugurating an urban forest in Lyari, the PPP chairman said that the current government’s economic policies are not in the people’s best interests and that the PPP would launch a protest movement against it next month.
“Imran Khan had promised to give the youth of this country 10 billion jobs, and had promised to construct five million houses. But in the duration this government has been in power, they have only taken from the people,” he said.
Bilawal added that the PPP had warned against the government’s economic policies as early as when they had introduced the budget. “This was not Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf’s (PTI) budget, it was the budget of the (PT)IMF [International Monetary Fund],” he said.
Ever since this budget has been imposed on us, there has been an increase in inflation, unemployment, and poverty. The PPP maintains that the government did not keep the country’s interests or its productivity in mind when negotiating with the IMF, he stated.
“They did not negotiate the correct package for the country,” he reiterated, adding that the poor people in the country now had to pay for the government’s incompetence.
The PPP chairman urged the federal government to renegotiate their deal with the IMF so that a more people-friendly package can be introduced.
“Deals shouldn’t be made on people’s rights, or on the country’s stance,” Bilawal said.
He stated that the PPP government was the first to introduce the concept of safeguarding the economic interests of the people.
“The revolutionary Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which was the country’s first social safety net, was initiated within a year to give money directly to the people.
They [PTI] have been in power for more than a year, and have not managed to introduce people-friendly policies. Instead, they are involved in conspiracies to eradicate the BISP.
“One day they remove her picture, the second day they remove one million women from the programme. Then they change the name of the initiative entirely. They [PTI] have only stolen [from the people,” he concluded.
