File photo courtesy PPP Media Cell
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday lamented, without elaboration, the lack of a “level playing field” for all political parties ahead of general elections, as he reiterated calls for timely elections.
Speaking with media in Sukkur, the former foreign minister claimed, without specifying, that a “level playing field” only existed for one party and not everyone. “I object to that,” he said, while reiterating that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should conduct elections on time and issue a schedule for polls accordingly.
Claiming the issues facing Pakistan, including inflation and economic turmoil, could not be resolved unless an elected government was in power, he said his party had a plan to fix the power sector. The party, if elected to power, would focus on green energy through a public-private model, he said. He also appeared to justify power theft by criticizing the incumbent government for cutting off power connections of individuals who refuse to pay their bills. “First, they [government] have inflicted suffering on the masses through inflated electricity bills and then they punish them further by cutting off their power,” he said, adding many parts of the country lacked reliable electricity and should not have to pay the bills. He also called for provincial autonomy, saying residents of areas with cheaper power generation should pay less than those who required the “import” of electricity.
On the proliferation of armed robbers in Sindh, the PPP leader alleged that the weapons abandoned by the U.S. in Afghanistan had now reached Sindh after first ending up in the hands of terrorists in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Blaming former prime minister Imran Khan for the deterioration of national security, he said the PTI chief and then-ISI chief Faiz Hameed had chalked out a plan to settle terrorists in Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban returned to power.
“How long would terrorists take to reach Karachi from [erstwhile] FATA region,” he questioned, slamming Hameed and Khan for not considering the threats posed by their policies. He stressed that the PPP had always condemned terrorism. “Our party united the entire nation against these terrorists,” he claimed, regretting that the flawed policies of the past had resulted in a terror resurgence once more.