BHALWAL - Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing a public gathering ahead of Feb 8 polls said Wednesday that the country is at a crossroads, and is facing a plethora of challenges, including poverty, unemployment and inflation.
Then, the country is also facing democratic and societal crises. The traditional politics of hatred and division has caused a divide between the entire society, families and institutions, he said. “Pakistanis are being made to fight amongst themselves. The PPP has decided to strive for Pakistan, and bury this traditional politics of hatred and division that has only ever caused devastation. The PPP is contesting the elections only for the people, farmers, labourers and the youth.” The PPP leader said that he had himself prepared a 10-point socioeconomic charter for the people to combat the current crises, which is an agreement between him and them. Those contesting for the seat of the PM for the fourth time are yet to apprise the people of their manifesto. When the lion comes to power, the blood of the people, farmers, labourers and youth is sucked. The PPP, on the contrary serves the people. We wish to establish a government of the people. Also, Bilawal said that the promises that the PPP is making to the people are not mere claims, they are a reflection of the PPP’s history. The party has always fulfilled its promises to the people, be it in the eras of Quaid-e-Awam or Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The people have suffered through the eras of dictators General Zia and General Musharraf, as well as Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. The people of the country need to decide whether they wish to suffer through the same politics again, in which even the families of one’s opponents are not spared. It is up to the people to decide whether they should continue to remain downtrodden. Bilawal recalled an English proverb, which is, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting a different result’. This is the very reason that the PPP and its leadership is going to every corner of the country, because it reposes trust in the people only, as it has been taught that people are the source of power. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto could have asked for revenge, and directed the crowd that had come to give her a historic welcome in Lahore in 1986 to avenge her father’s killing, but she chose to serve the people. Now, whenever someone is facing a NAB case, they attack institutions. However, President Zardari chose not to engage in political victimisation of any form, and raised the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappay’. Bilawal said that he prays that no other political party and its workers suffer through the same tyrannical treatment meted out to his family, party and its workers. He said that the PPP wishes to transform Pakistan into a modern state that looks after its people.
The PPP’s first promise to the people is to double their income. This is followed by the party’s aim to provide 300 units of electricity free-of-cost to the deserving citizens of the country, and other parties are trying to copy this aim. Another promise to the people is that the PPP will construct three million houses for them throughout the country and give the ownership to the women of the households, as it is already doing in Sindh. Moreover, the Jiyalas need to convey the message to all those living in temporary housing that their space would be regularised and they will gain ownership. The PPP initiated the revolutionary Benazir Income Support Programme, and as an effort to combat poverty, we aim to not only expand the BISP but also provide interest-free loans to the women of the country so that they can run their household and gain financial independence while contributing to the economy of Pakistan. The PPP is the only party that believes in, ‘Kissan Khushaal, Mulk Khushaal’. Hence, the Party is aiming to provide the ‘Benazir Kissan Card’ and the ‘Benazir Mazdoor Card’, to provide crop insurance and financial assistance to all small farmers, and social security to labourers, instead of giving subsidises worth billions to the elite. President Zardari had prioritised our own farmers, and this resulted in us becoming sugar and wheat exporters from being importers within a year. Addressing the youth of the country, Bilawal said that they need to realise that the vote is their source of power, which was given to them by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.