Screengrab of PPP chairman’s press conference
In wide-ranging press conference, PPP chairman accuses first lady of corruption; warns premier of responding in ‘same language’ to threats
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will no longer tolerate any threats to its leadership or workers, party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned on Thursday in a direct response to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech from a day earlier.
“We will not tolerate this anymore; I am here now,” he said, adding that he felt compelled to respond to two incidents that were “unbearable”—P.M. Khan’s declaration that former president Asif Ali Zardari was in his crosshairs and a private TV channel’s drone striking Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari during the PPP’s Awami Long March.
Recalling that the Bhutto family had rendered many sacrifices for Pakistan and the restoration of democracy, he said that the party had examined footage of the drone incident and did not believe it was an accident. “We consider the attack on Aseefa a message for us,” he said and requested the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency and other investigation agencies to probe the matter and determine how the drone had struck his sister on her forehead.
Turning to Khan’s speech, Bilawal said the prime minister’s threats to his father’s life were not a joke, especially considering his family’s history. “I am not a child anymore,” he said, referring to his young age when his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated. Warning Khan, he said that anyone who thought such threats would scare him away did not recognize that the blood of both Zardari and Benazir flowed in his veins. “What I will do to you [Khan] will be remembered by generations to come,” he warned.
“We [PPP] have never used guns, but we know how to use them,” he said, while noting that he was a peaceful person and would remain the same. “However, we will respond in the same language if they [PTI] keep pressuring us,” he said, voicing his anger at the prime minister’s “foul language.”
Corruption allegations
Directly addressing Khan, Bhutto-Zardari accused him of taking funds from India and Israel, in a reference to the ongoing foreign funding case, as well as using donations given to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust for the PTI’s party funds. “You used the donations from the cancer hospital to run your kitchen and your party … you are a culprit; a United States court has convicted you,” he said.
Stressing that he respected her and had never spoken against her in any capacity, the PPP chairman alleged that reports from the Punjab bureaucracy suggested that no government official could be transferred anywhere in Punjab without first giving “money” to the first lady. “We are also told that your candidate for the chief minister [failed to pay up], but [incumbent chief minister Usman] Buzdar invested in the right place—and this problem [Buzdar] remains imposed on us,” he claimed.
“Should we still believe that you are meeting ends by selling your cricketing days’ toys?” he said, questioning the premier’s source of income. “The cases that will be filed against you … you have no idea,” he said, adding that the premier should “pray” that Zardari does not form the next government if he wished to avoid accountability. “We will request Shahbaz Sharif to appoint an appropriate interior minister [to tackle this],” he added. He urged Khan to take whatever steps against the opposition he wanted to now, because “you will not get the chance in future.”
The PPP chairman took strong exception to Khan using “foul language” in his speech when referring to JUIF and Pakistan Democratic Movement chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “Who are you to use such a language against him?” he said.
At the onset of his press conference, Bhutto-Zardari thanked PPP supporters for joining the party’s Awami March, adding that their participation has made it a “historic” event. “The people brought a no-confidence motion against the selected [prime minister] and proved that they stand by the democracy,” he said, adding that the PPP was targeting the incumbent government in a democratic manner and hoped the no-trust motion to oust the prime minister would soon succeed.