- Claims PPP is alive today because it kept fighting while carrying ‘dead on shoulders’
- Vows trounce PTI across country the way his party did in Sindh LG polls
HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has advised his party’s allies in the outgoing PDM government that they should not shy away from participating in the elections just because they are frightened about the outcome.
“It is said one who takes fright dies,” said Bilawal quoting a sub-continental adage while addressing the inauguration ceremony of 6 million gallons per day (MGD) filtration plant in Hussainabad area here on Sunday.
He emphasized that it was necessary to compete in the general elections.”The PPP is alive today because our workers and leaders were martyred but we never bowed or backed out but we kept fighting while carrying our dead on our shoulders,” he underlined.
“We neither ran away from the elections before nor we will do so now,” he added. The PPP’s Chairman cautioned that whenever a political party created a void by not participating in the electoral process the space left by it was occupied by another party.
He referred to the local government elections in Hyderabad which were boycotted by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and in their absence Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged successful in 2 out of 9 Town Municipal Corporations (TMCs).
“They also became frightened and so they died. I tried everything to convince them. I begged them to fight the LG elections from Karachi and Hyderabad,” Bilawal recalled.
He reiterated that MQM-P’s decision to boycott the LG elections created a space which was occupied by an anti-Pakistan party like PTI which was responsible for the May 9 attacks on Jinnah House, GHQ and other places.
“I told MQM-P that they should contest the polls and whatever the people decide by choosing your or our party we will accept the results,” he added.
According to him, he had been trying to convince all the coalition partners in Pakistan Democratic Movement’s government that their politics and support among the people would suffer a setback if they opted to delay or stay out of the electoral process. “But, sadly our allies have become frightened.
They earlier tried to escape from the by-elections and then the LG polls and now, perhaps, they want to run away from the general elections,” he lamented. However, he asserted, it was not in the training of the PPP to run away or to become fearful.
Bilawal vowed that the way PPP trounced the PTI in Sindh, the party would do the same against Imran Khan’s party in the rest of the country with the public’s support.”… those doing politics of divide and hatred elsewhere in Pakistan, and those trying to create rifts between the institutions and public of Pakistan, and those who attacked Jinnah House on May 9, we are coming for them and we will fight them,” he announced.
He requested his party’s supporters to give a befitting response to that mudslinging by uploading videos on the social media reflecting the PPP’s performance in Sindh.
Bilawal said the PPP had not only established health facilities but quality health services were also being provided.
Earlier, former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah asked the people to give their mandate to the PPP so that the party could elect Bilawal as the next PM.
He said his party dare to admit the unaccomplished works while appraising the people about the completed projects. Shah recalled that the capacity of Hyderabad’s filtration plants was only around 35 MGD when the PPP formed the government in 2008 but the same had now been doubled to 70 MGD.
He expressed hope that the PPP’s Mayor Kashif Ali Shoro would change the appearance of Hyderabad by carrying out development and beautification works.
“The people are waiting for the elections so that they can see their beloved leader Bilawal become the PM,” said Nisar Khuhro, PPP Sindh’s President.
Sharjeel Inam Memon, former provincial ministers Nasir Hussain Shah and Jam Khan Shoro also expressed their views on the occasion.
