MIRPUR (AJK)-PPP Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday emphasised that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be allowed to decide about their fate without further loss of time.
“Only the people of Jammu & Kashmir have the legitimate right to decide about their future through free and fair plebiscite - which should be held under the spirit of the UN resolutions”, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said while addressing an election rally at Quaid-e-Azam International Sports Stadium Monday evening. The public meeting marked the PPP campaign for the upcoming general elections to the State Legislative Assembly to be held in mid of July this year.
At the same time, Bilawal demanded immediate resignation of Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz from his office for, what he called, the poor foreign policies of the incumbent government of Pakistan in maintaining friendly ties with the external world, especially with the neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran.
Former prime ministers of Pakistan - Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPP leader Farayal Talpur, AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed and AJK Minister for Finance Latif Akber also addressed the public meeting.
Bilawal was flanked by various other senior PPP leaders including former minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Rehman Mallick, Senator Saeed Ghani and others on the occasion.
The PPP chief continued that his party would never lag behind the just and principled national stance on Jammu & Kashmir issue - which, he declared, always remain the objective of the PPP’s politics. He said that holding of Plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir to enable the local population to decide about their future, had always been the slogan of his party and it would stand till the settlement of the Kashmir issue in line with the aspirations of people of the state.
Bilawal said that an economically and strategically strong and stable Pakistan is the guarantee to the freedom of Kashmir. He said that to ensure this reality, late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto turned Pakistan into an atomic power. The PPP chairman said that the nuclear Pakistan of today was the great gift of ZAB to 200 million people of the country.
Lambasting Indian Prime Minister Narrindra Modi, Bilawal said that Modi’s occupational forces are involved in human rights abuses by unleashing the reign of terror and violence in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
He accused the sitting Pakistani rulers of deliberately trying to put the Kashmir issue on the back burner - merely to establish trade ties with India for, what he called, the accomplishment of their vested monetary interests. “Our Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) preferred to meet the Indian traders of Steel instead of the Kashmiri freedom fighters during his visit to New Delhi for attending the oath-taking ceremony of his Indian counterpart Narrindra Modi,” he mockingly recalled. He blamed that Kashmir is deliberately ignored in KUFA declaration.
Bilawal said that his party has earlier demanded resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “but now, before that, we first demand immediate resignation of the Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz. He said that India is no doubt, the arch rival of Pakistan but relations with other neighbours including Afghanistan and Iran are also not so cordial as had been in the past. He claimed that there are efforts to made CPEC controversial due to, what he alleged, the poor performance of the adviser on Foreign Affairs.
The PPP chairman said that accountability process should be exercised without any discrimination in a transparent manner. He said that political opponents should not be targeted through the exercise of partial accountability. Referring to the dictatorial rule of Gen Zia, the PPP chairman recalled that his party’s leaders and workers suffered capital punishments in the name of the so-called ‘severe accountability’ but the party’s founding chairman Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto preferred the gallows to bowing before the dictator in the battle for democracy.
Mr Bilawal said that his party’s leadership is faced with the same fate during the incumbent regime as the doctor of his father has been made hostage. He recalled that his mother was thrown in solitary confinement in Sukkur Jail at the age of 24. “She was also thrown in exile in the name of the partial and discriminatory accountability”, he claimed.
The PPP chairman said that exploitation of the political rivals in the name of accountability should immediately be stopped - since his party believes in the transparency of accountability.
Raising finger towards his political rivals, Bilawal asked “why you skip courts if you are neat and clean in acts and deeds” ?. He categorically declared that accountability is being considered only to “save Takhet-e-Riawand.”
Referring to the famous ‘charter of democracy’, Bilawal maintained that the Prime Minister has forgiven the COD, “because it was also signed by my late mother”. He emphatically said that his party wants implementation of every section of the charter of democracy to ensure the country’s smooth journey on the road to democracy.
Referring to the forthcoming general elections in Azad Jammu Kashmir, Bilawal said that the upcoming AJK polls would be of exceptional importance. “These are not mere general elections, rather it involves the honour and fate of the people of Kashmir”, he observed. Bilawal asserted that entire world is keeping a close watch on the upcoming elections to the AJK Legislative Assembly.
Bilawal declared that voting for the PML-N in the upcoming state elections would mean voting against Kashmir and for the friends of Indian Premier Modi. He called on people of the state to vote the PPP for retaining power in the State for another five year constitutional term.
On Tuesday, Bilawal will inaugurate recently upgraded state-run Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University of Medical Sciences at Chitterpari in outskirt of the city. Besides, he will also inaugurate Assefa Bhutto Zardari Park, set up by Mirpur Development Authority on the left bank of Mangla Dam lake at the entry point of Mirpur city.
Earlier, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was accorded rousing reception as he was brought to the venue in a procession from Mangla Bridge, the gateway to this part of Azad Jammu Kashmir.