Quetta - PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said his party will clean sweep next general elections and form government across the country.
Addressing a gathering in Quetta, Bilawal said the new addition would help the PPP become stronger and win the next elections.
The function was held at Jattak House on Sariab Road in connection with leading politicians from different political parties joining the PPP. “A Jiyala (PPP stalwart) will lead the next Balochistan government as the chief minister,” the scion of the Bhutto dynasty claimed.
He formally welcomed former PML-N leaders Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, retired Lt-Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch and others to the PPP.
Other personalities who have announced joining the PPP include former MPA and former provincial minister Col (retd) Younus Changezi, former member MPA and former provincial minister Nawab Muhammad Khan Shahwani, former MPA Kishwar Jattak, former Naseerabad district nazim Sardar Changez Sasoli, former central leader of the BNP Sardar Imran Bangalzai, former Khuzdar district council chairman Mir Abdul Rehman Zehri, former PML-N Leader Nawab Sherbaz Nosherwani, Mir Irfan Kurd, former provincial minister Agha Irfan Karim Ahmadzai, Mir Ghazi Khan Pendrani and Syed Abbas Shah.
“The manner in which you have joined the party, we will give strength to each other and will work hard side-by-side and struggle,” he told the new entrants. “In the coming general elections — in the whole country but especially in Balochistan — we will establish a PPP government and elect a jiyala chief minister and find solutions to Balochistan’s problems.”
With Zehri and Baloch part of the PPP, Bilawal said it would now reach every district and area of Balochistan and if the locals supported it then “no power in the world can block our path.”
He mentioned the names of other personalities who also joined the PPP — former provincial minister Nawab Mohammad Khan Shahwani (National Party) and former minister retired Col Younis Changizi (PML-Q) — and thanked them for doing so, saying they would become “our power”.
Addressing the new members, Bilawal said, “The PPP isn’t merely a political party but “a family, and we do politics for respect and will give respect to one another and the people of Balochistan. We will do politics together with each other in the coming days.”
Bilawal observed that the people of Balochistan were energetic and brave, and that the relationship between the PPP and the people of Balochistan went back three generations.
“[The people of Balochistan] had supported Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and made history,” he added.
“The historic bond was further cemented when the people of Balochistan stood by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. After her martyrdom, they again sided with [former] president Asif Ali Zardari and now they would be my strength.”
The PPP chairman noted that a new generation was entering the political fray.
“I want to make history with the youth of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.”
Bilawal said the PPP -- by passing the National Finance Commission (NFC) award to the provinces -- had ensured that the “historic injustices” could be repaired.
He added that his party had also passed the 18th Amendment to “realise the dream of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to devolve power and give the right to self-govern to the provinces”.
He said one of the basic rights enshrined in the Constitution had guaranteed that the people of that province from where natural reserves had been discovered would be the first to benefit from them.
The PPP chairman claimed that his father, former president Zardari, had provided Benazir Income Support Programme for financial assistance to impoverished women and increased salaries and pensions, including those of the armed forces.
Bilawal claimed that while “the puppet and ineligible” Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government had been established after that of Nawaz Sharif’s, both had usurped the will of the people.
He added that both the PTI and PML-N were further trying to undermine people’s rights.
“They are jointly conniving to undermine the 18th Amendment and do away with the NFC Award. They only see our islands, our coasts, and our resources, but they don’t see the people. There is only one party, the PPP, that knows how to defend your rights.”
Bilawal, while referring to the Quetta blast in 2016, said the people of Balochistan had faced many difficulties. “Lawyers were martyred here five years ago, but so far they have not received justice.”
Zehri and Baloch had quit the PML-N in November 2020 along with their supporters after they were not invited to attend a public meeting organised by the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on December 25.
They had also strongly reacted to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s speech against the army chief and head of the Inter-Services Intelligence during a PDM rally in Gujranwala.
“We have consulted our people and like-minded political and tribal friends and with their consent decided to join the PPP on the invitation of the party leadership,” Baloch had said in a meeting held on June 15.
Zehri, speaking through video link, had said: “We do not take decisions in closed drawing rooms. We take decisions after consulting our people and link-minded friends.”