PESHAWAR - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday lashed out at his political rivals —the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz — saying both the parties had polluted politics for their self-interest.

“Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s development claim and Imran Khan’s slogan of change are both lies and farce. Both the parties are misleading the nation with false claims of prosperity and provision of facilities to the masses. The PTI and the PML-N have polluted the politics. Imran and Nawaz are befooling the people,” he said while speaking at a public gathering on Peshawar's Kohat Road in connection with the NA-4 Peshawar by-election. The gathering was attended by a large number of people. The by-polls in the NA-4 constituency are scheduled for October 26. The seat fell vacant after the death of former PTI MNA Gulzar Khan in August.

“The PTI chief feels pleasure in using abusive language against senior politicians. He (Imran) has no control over his tongue (language). So how will he lead the nation,” he questioned.

"He [Imran] is the biggest liar I have ever seen. He cherishes the politics of unrest and chaos. Khan is even unable to control his tongue," he said adding that the PTI and the PML-N were “responsible for dirty politics in Pakistan”.

Lambasting the PML-N, he said the development claims made by Sharif were nothing but just a deception. “The fact is that only the wealth and assets of the PML-N chief (Sharif) and not that of the country, have increased,” Bilawal said, adding, Sharif clung to his chair until he was disqualified by the apex court. “Imran is doing politics simply to gain power. The PTI chief is a liar and anarchist, who would resort to any tactics to shift from his Bani Gala residence to the Prime Minister’s House,” the PPP chairman claimed.

“Traders and farmers are worried about their businesses and production. The educated youth is not getting jobs and the poverty has been rising continuously, the propaganda (about development in the country and change in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) of both the parties is still going-on unabashedly,” Bilawal said.

“It was the PPP which changed the name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, announced the NFC award,” he said, asking the people to defeat “deceiving and inept politicians” in the upcoming by-polls. He said that the PTI chief had no vision and instead he was spreading provocation. He asked if he (Imran) had the competence to be the leader of the nation, why corruption was rampant in KP, while the PTI chief was portraying himself as an angel.

Criticising privatization of hospitals in the KP province, he said it would bring further misery. He questioned if health and education was privatized then where the people will go. “No hospital has been built in KP in the last four years but instead, allegations were levelled against the Sindh government where it was establishing hospitals and trauma centres.”

He also rejected tall claims of the PTI chief in reforming health and education sectors and challenged to tell the names of only 100 students who have shifted from private schools to the public sector schools in KP. “The PTI-led provincial government did not bring any change in both the sectors and teachers and doctors are protesting on a daily basis due to its wrong policies,” Bilawal said.

He said the billion trees tsunami (project) did not made the province lush green and instead it helped the leaders fill their pockets and Khan got wealthier.

“The PTI chief is using the resources of KP for doing politics in Punjab,” Bilawal claimed. He said that those who were claiming to eliminate corruption within 90 days could not appoint the chairman of the Ehtisab Commission (in KP) in the last three years. He said that “the kitchen of Imran and the plane of Jehangir Tarin were being run from the contracts of the KP government”.

He said if Imran had formed the federal government in 2013, then its fate would have been the same as that of the KP government.

Bilawal said the PPP was an ideological party with a vision and a programme and had raised the voice for the rights of marginalized segments of society including workers, farmers, traders and the youth. He said the PPP raised its voice against terrorists when Imran was calling to negotiate with them while the country was burning due to terrorism.

He said the PPP will win the NA-4 by-election as it had awarded the ticket to an educated youth, Asad Gulzar Khan, who, he said, joined the PPP after seeing the “real face” of the PTI.

He said that Gulzar was his nominee who understands the problems of the constituency and hoped that the people will vote for him. “Defeat is the destiny of the PTI and the victory is the fate of the PPP,” he said adding, October 26 was going to be a day when inefficient and corrupt politicians would be defeated.