LAHORE - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that there was need to identify those who raised the issue of resignations when his party was all set to participate in the long march,  “whose idea it was to link the long march with resigning from parliament when only ten days were left. 

It should have been decided when the decision for long march was taken”, he said while talking to the media along with Jamaat e Islami Emir Sirajul Haq after meeting at Mansoora on Monday. 

Bilawal said that PPP was fully prepared for the long march and rooms had also been booked in Islamabad. 

He said the blood in his veins was not meant to become ‘selected’, adding that a family of Lahore has in the past been becoming selected. 

He along with other leaders visited Mansoora to seek JI support for PPP candidate for Senate opposition leader’s slot. 

Bilawal refrained from replying when asked to comment on a tweet of PML-N vice chairman Maryam Nawaz Sharif in which she had hinted that a substitute was being prepared to replace the ‘current selected’ who had badly failed. 

Bilawal said he would not comment on PML-N’s vice president and would rather ask PPP’s vice president to comment. 

He told a questioner that PPP had always taken the stance that Senate elections and by-elections must be contested since it was the only way we caused damage to the government. “those whose stance of boycotting the Senate polls and by-polls proved wrong should now review their decisions”, he added.  Bilawal said long march should not have been postponed, adding that the issue of resignations was to be discussed at the forum of party’s CEC. 

To a question, he said, democratic traditions all over the world backed the candidate of second largest party in the House for the slot of opposition leader. He said our stance was that Yusuf Raza Gillani had won the elections. He told a questioner that across the board accountability was party of PPP manifesto and he fully stood by it. He said the way in which Maryam Nawaz was summoned has opened the doors of criticism over NAB, adding that the situation in Punjab and in the national assembly was fully ripe for tabling no confidence against the government. 

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said PPP was ready to work with the JI with open heart on a number of issues. He said both the parties had similarity of stance on a number of issues including electoral reforms, accountability and Kashmir dispute, and both the parties had never joined the game of becoming selected. To a question, he said, PPP had always stressed on electoral reforms, adding that JI could play a historic role in holding consultations with other parties for those reforms. 

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said NAB only tergetted the opposition, requiring the opposition parties to work jointly. He said PPP from the first day had said that NAB was an institution created by a military dictaotor, and as a result of its one-sided accountability the corruption had become multiplied under Imran Khan government. He said every Pakistani citizen was being drowned into the tsunami of price hike, and said his party would work with JI on the basis of issues. 

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari backed the Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq suggestion for initiation of national dialogue among political forces on the issue of election reforms. It was Bilawal’s maiden visit to Mansoora as PPP chairman.

“The JI could play a historic role [to unite the political parties] for electoral reforms because of its neutrality and acceptance to both campus [government and opposition],” said the PPP chairman.

He said the PPP also agreed to the JI stance that the country needed an across the board system of accountability. But, he added, his party had no trust on the present anti-corruption watchdog because it was extremely biased and its unconstitutional status as it was established by a dictator. He said the JI chief was right when he (Sirajul Haq) says the present government damaged the Kashmir cause, hence there was need to develop a joint strategy for the liberation of Indian occupied Kashmir.

Earlier, the JI Emir Sirajul Haq along with JI Secretary General Ameerul Azim, JI Deputy Emir Liaqat Baloch others welcomed the PPP delegation. Both sides discussed the current political situation and other matters of mutual interests in the meeting which continued for more than one and half hours. The PPP delegation comprised of Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Parvez Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Saeed Ghani and others. 

Talking to reporters, Sirajul Haq said the JI was a democratic party and believed on dialogue among the political forces. He said the PTI government’s economic policies brought a horrible wave of inflation and unemployment in the country. He said the political force must join hand for election reforms before the next election to end the blame game and to restore the masses’ trust on democratic system.  He said the JI was in favor of across the board accountability and believed that everyone whether it was general or a judge, a politician or a bureaucrat should be held accountable for his/her deeds.  He said the PTI government took a fragile stand on Kashmir cause after India’s unconstitutional move to abrogate of special status of Occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019. The government, he said, was expected to call an APC on Kashmir and develop a united policy for the liberation of Kashmirs from India yoke but it failed to meet the nation’s expectation, disappointing both the people of Kashmir and Pakistan. He said national action plan for the liberation of IOK was need of the hour.

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