- PPP head Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the PDM seeks “democracy, a fair playing field, and an end to unemployment, inflation and poverty”
- Discarding Home Minister Shaikh Rasheed’s comment that the PPP “won” after the PDM “accepted defeat”
- Condemned the Machh coal mine incident, said “the big terrorists fled” and the perpetrators of the APS attack “let go”
SUKKUR / THATTA: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said if the interior ministers and the federal government were doing their job instead of “doing politics and making noise over PDM”, then incidents like the one at the Machh coal mine in Balochistan might be can be avoided.
Bilawal condemned the incident Sunday – in which gunmen kidnapped and shot dead at least 11 siege – demanded that the PTI regime implement the National Action Plan (RAN) and implement it.
Read more: 11 miners were killed when gunmen attacked coal miners at Machh in Balochistan
The RAN has been in oblivion since the government came to power, he said, adding that “the big terrorists fled” and that the perpetrators involved in the Army Public School (APS) attacks were also “released”.
“Innocent people are left at the mercy of these terrorists. No investigation has been carried out and no one has been arrested,” said the PPP chief.
The PPP head made comments during a visit to Shirazi’s House in Thatta, where he, along with Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, and Irrigation Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal extended their condolences to the late Syed Ijaz Ali Shah Shirazi. brother, Syed Shafqat Shah Shirazi, about the death of the former provincial adviser.
PDM ‘doesn’t ask for help’
Bilawal said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – an anti-government coalition of nearly a dozen Opposition parties – had never asked for any “favors” and instead sought “democracy, a fair playing field and an end to unemployment, inflation and poverty”.
He was responding to a journalist’s question about the PTI regime’s stance that the PDM was formed only to “seek concessions like the NRO” – a reference to the National Reconciliation Ordinance, which the ruling party and the Opposition coalition claim that other parties are demanding.
Related: What does the NRO mean? Revisiting the history of the famous ordinance
The government only raised NOT When there is no answer to the PDM’s criticism but the people can “see clearly these tactics”, he said.
Responding to a question about the disagreement between PDM and PPP, he said his party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) supports every move of the PDM. Decisions about contesting the upcoming by-election or other elections will be made from the Opposition coalition platform “by consensus”, he stressed.
The PPP chairman also rejected Home Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad’s comments from the day before when the latter claimed the PPP had “won” after the PDM “accepted defeat”.
The PDM victory is the PPP victory and the PPP victory is the PDM victory, so we are one. If the PDM wins, the people of Pakistan will win, ”he said.
‘Incompetent administration’
He said the PTI government had been extended amnesty scheme only for the building of the “mafia” but not prepared to provide assistance to workers, the poor, and white collar individuals. “Prime Minister Imran Khan’s inefficient and incompetent government will be sent home with public power,” he added.
Referring to the prime minister’s comments on the government’s “preparations”, as well as the smooth transition between governments through briefings, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan continued to “admit” repeatedly that he was on the training wheel with no experience in power.
Related: PM Imran Khan said ‘never made any excuse that I wasn’t ready’
If the Prime Minister does not have the required experience, “then he will have to leave him [position of] power because he has no solution to it [people’s] problem “, said Bilawal.
He added that since PTI held a sit-in at Aabpara Chowk Islamabad, PDM had to hold a protest there as well.
Bilawal underlined that if the prime minister and his Sindh government stepped down, political routes – including options for national dialogue – could be contemplated.