Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021 will empower the local bodies politically and financially.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Bilawal said that the PPP will empower the local bodies, adding that the bill is being called a black law by those who have imposed a unilateral local government ordinance in Punjab.
“Property tax will directly be given to local bodies. When they start collecting the taxes themselves, they will have the finances to help the people,” he said.
He also said that in the coming local body elections, people across the country, including Karachi, will prove that the PPP is the only party that has solution to their problems.
He said that the local bodies will be strong politically too as the education, health and law departments of each town will be answerable to the elected bodies. They will have to provide a report every two weeks.
He said that since he was born, Mustafa Kamal and Wasim Akhtar have been reigning Karachi, adding that he can sit with them if they have to offer constructive criticism. “PPP is the only party who speaks the truth and has good intentions,” he said.
The PPP chairman further said that similar law will soon be introduced across Sindh, adding that the only reason other political parties are intervening is because they know they will lose in front of the ‘teer’.
He said that all of PPP’s political opponents have accepted the success of the party and realised that PPP is stronger than ever.
“Compare all the hospitals of the Sindh government to others. We believe in free healthcare and all our government hospitals for the people are following international standards. JPMC has the facilities you find across the world. So does NICVD,” he said.
He said that the opposition parties can do politics, but no one has the right to be racist. “We can take criticism if it makes sense,” he said adding, “but now they are just playing the ethnic card.”
“Sindh’s new local government law is better than the local government laws of Punjab, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because Sindh has given more powers to local bodies than other provinces,” he said.
“Neither Musharraf nor Altaf Hussain gave anyone this power. We our empowering the elected representatives to generate their own revenue.”
He said that MQM’s time was a time of great bloodshed but PPP brought peace to Karachi.
He said that the health card Imran Khan is boasting off has a limit and it will not even be able to cover the cost of one-day treatment at a Covid ward. On the other hand, PPP provides heart transplants for free, he added.
Talking about foreign affairs, the PPP chairman said that Pakistan should not have skipped the US-hosted virtual summit on democracy.
The two-day virtual summit was held on December 9-10, in which more than 100 nations, including Pakistan, were invited. Pakistan had refused to participate in the summit, saying Islamabad would like to engage with Washington on the issue of democracy “at an opportune time in the future”.
Bilawal said that Pakistan was not in a position to “deprive” itself of any forum.
“Even if an ally raises objections, we can raise their views and our views [at the forum] but we should never cede space,” he said adding that in his opinion, this was a “mistake” at a foreign policy level.
