ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said that PPP fully supports Prime Minister-elect Shehbaz Sharif’s bid for a “Charter of National Reconciliation”. In his speech in the National Assembly, he recalled the Prime Minister’s offer during his first speech in the House to cooperate on the Charter of National Reconciliation. “We not only support it but also call on the opposition to participate in this process for the wider interests of the country,” he said. Bilawal Bhutto congratulated the newly elected chief ministers of all four provinces and stressed the need for them to play their part in saving Pakistan’s “democracy and economy”. He said that people did not elect anyone to create a ruckus but to save them from this economic crisis.
Bilawal Bhutto emphasized the need for discourse among all legislators. He said that Parliament is the mother of all institutions and if this institution was strengthened, it would ultimately strengthen the masses. “The people of Pakistan are tired of poverty, unemployment and inflation,” he said, adding, “they didn’t vote for you to come here and abuse each other and create a ruckus.” Bilawal Bhutto asked the senior legislators to take decisions that will benefit the youth and future generations. “Many of them have been in this House six times,” he noted. “The past decisions that have been made have completely destroyed the country,” he added.
The PPP chief said he was disappointed by the “abuse” in yesterday’s National Assembly session in which PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister for his second term. “What does the nation see? We have reached a dangerous point,” he said. Bilawal Bhutto said the February 8 election was “unnecessarily controversial” incidents such as the raid on the presidential candidate’s residence. The PPP chairman expressed support for his party in the matter of PTI, which wants to resolve possible election irregularities.
He condemned the ruckus and consistent sloganeering during yesterday’s National Assembly session in which Shehbaz Sharif was elected as Prime Minister. “I appeal to all of you, especially those who are members of this House for the third time, do not create such a ruckus here,” he added. The PPP chief welcomed the Prime Minister’s elected announcement of providing fertilizer subsidies to farmers. Bilawal Bhutto called for electoral and judicial reforms, noting that the country had been unsuccessful in judicial and electoral reforms, and demanded that talks be held on both these topics. “If we can solve these problems, then no power in the world can weaken Pakistan’s democracy,” he said.
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Lamenting the violence that claimed the lives of several election candidates and workers, the PPP chief noted grenade attacks in Balochistan and across the country ahead of the general elections. “In Pakistan, elections are such that candidates are killed while contesting elections. We have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he added. “I hope we can do a job that allows me to tell the families that their sacrifice was not in vain,” he said. He urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to form a judicial commission headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Faez Isa to investigate the May 9 incidents so that the accused are accused and the innocent are released.
Bilawal Bhutto supported the PTI’s call for a judicial commission to investigate the May 9 riots. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister-elect Ali Amin Gandapur’s remarks regarding the investigation into the saga, he added. “PPP supports this, if PTI has assured us that they will accept the decision of the judicial commission, there is no way that someone will attack our institutions, martyrs’ memorials and we will forget about it,” he said. Bilawal Bhutto said masses of people are looking to their elected representatives to lead the country out of the multi-dimensional problems facing the country including those on the economic front.
He said PTI had misused the cipher for political gains and added that those involved in the misuse of the cipher had committed a violation of the constitution and should be punished. He alleged that the PTI founder had politicized the cipher by printing a copy and publishing it in international publications. Bilawal claimed that the PTI founder claimed that the cipher was lost by him, while the opposition leader claimed that the bureaucracy was responsible for the loss of the cipher. The PPP chairman confirmed that anti-state elements and national rivals can use the cipher as a distraction, posing a threat to national security, state institutions and the state itself. He urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to abolish unwanted federal ministries.
