File photo of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday called on all political parties of Pakistan to evolve consensus on how to tackle the crises facing the country, adding a “code of conduct” should be devised to ensure politicians “don’t cross the line” when facing off in elections.
Addressing an inaugural event to mark 2023 as the Golden Jubilee Year of the Constitution, Bhutto-Zardari—who also heads the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)—said a “minimum common agenda” was essential to steer the country out of prevailing crises. In this regard, he said, the central executive committee of the PPP had formed a body to reach out to all political forces and convince them of the need for a code of conduct that would “regulate our behavior inside and outside Parliament.”
Bhutto-Zardari’s call for political consensus comes less than a week after the ruling coalition announced—and subsequently cancelled—plans for an all-parties conference to deliberate on the economic and security crises facing Pakistan. The government has yet to provide any explanation for the cancellation of a meeting that had been seen by political observers as key to resolving the political deadlock that has persisted in the country since the PTI lost the federal government through a vote of no-confidence.
Stressing that unity was the solution, the PPP chairman said: “If every party decides it will neither play, nor allow others to play, the nation will be the ultimate loser.” Warning that this was the “last chance” for political parties to “save the country,” he regretted that “some people”—a reference to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan—said they could talk with terrorists but not with their political rivals.
Hailing the 1973 Constitution, he said it had guaranteed various rights to people and provided freedom of expression as well as the right to vote to ordinary people. He said—inaccurately, as the “one man, one vote” was implemented by Yahya Khan in 1970—that the 1973 Constitution had “forced” the elite to approach the common man to beg for votes thanks to the “revolution” brought about by PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.