<\/p>\n
PESHAWAR: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sat\u00adur\u00adday said his party was ready to participate in the upcoming general elections, accusing its opponents of disrespecting the vote and stres\u00adsing that it was a misunderstanding that a prime minister could be forcibly imposed on the country.<\/p>\n
Addressing a workers\u2019 convention in Peshawar, he said the PPP was ready to fight and would not become a part of any Islami Ja\u00ad\u00adm\u00adhoori Ittehad (IJI), a united political alliance formed before the 1988 elections to counter the PPP.<\/p>\n
He claimed that the PPP was accustomed to overcoming unfair political challenges, insisting that the party never had a level playing field in general elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there any level playing field in 1988 when IJI was formed against [former prime minister] Benazir Bhutto?\u201d he asked. \u201cBut still, Benazir Bhutto won the election and became the first female prime minister of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCriticises old and new political rivals for U-turns, governance failures<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He also highlighted how the 2002 elections under the military ruler Pervez Musharraf were \u201csn\u00ad\u00adatched away\u201d from the PPP. \u201cEven then, PPP performed well. But some people turned out to be sellouts. Benazir termed them \u2018Pakis\u00adtan People\u2019s Parasites\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Questioning the alleged impartiality of the 2008 elections, which the PPP won, he said 200 workers were killed in the first pre-election rally held on Oct 18, 2007, adding that the party\u2019s leader Benazir was also assassinated later that year on Dec 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut still, the election was postponed. It had to take place within a week, but they took 40 days. Despite all that, the PPP won the election and formed a government,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
He made it clear that if someone thought that they could forcibly make someone the prime minister, they were wrong. He said PPP activists were present in the field as he vowed not to become part of any future IJI and contest on his party\u2019s symbol, the arrow.<\/p>\n
Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who served as the foreign minister in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) administration, said the 16-month-long government was tough, but he could at least feel proud of his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel proud and I am willing to contest elections based on my performance,\u201d he said and questioned the readiness of other cabinet members from PDM parties for the upcoming polls. \u201cAre they ready to contest polls on their performance?\u201d he wondered.<\/p>\n
The PPP chairman criticised both his old and new political rivals. He targeted PTI chief Imran Khan for his U-turns, stressing that it represented cowardice, not a leader\u2019s feature.<\/p>\n
Mr Bhutto-Zardari also flayed the PML-N for its governance failures and leaving behind its vote ko izzat do narrative. He accused the Sharifs\u2019 party of transforming into the \u2018Mehngai League\u2019 and failing to respect the voters\u2019 mandate.<\/p>\n
Pointing out the \u201cineffectiveness\u201d of health cards introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he claimed that the health scheme favoured private hospitals and the wealthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIslam is our religion, democracy is our politics, socialism is our economy, and the power rests with the people,\u201d he said, stressing that the PPP\u2019s people-centric approach was different from that of other parties, which he accused of favouring the elite.<\/p>\n
Highlighting the significant number of young people in the country, Mr Bhutto-Zardari urged older politicians to step aside and called for an end to the politics of confrontation and hatred.<\/p>\n
He also promised that once in power, the PPP would expand the Benazir Income Support Prog\u00adramme and introduce Mazdoor Cards to support workers.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sat\u00adur\u00adday said his party was ready to participate in the upcoming general elections, accusing its opponents of disrespecting the vote and stres\u00adsing that it was a misunderstanding that a prime minister could be forcibly imposed on the country. Addressing a workers\u2019 convention in Peshawar, he said the PPP was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/1904011433f461c.jpg?r=040120","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}