Bilawal urges parties to unite against spectre of terrorism

PESHAWAR:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on all political parties on Wednesday to set differences aside and stand united against the growing challenge of terrorism.

Addressing lawyers of the high court bar in Peshawar, the PPP scion condemned yesterday’s terrorist attack in DI Khan. Bilawal said that terrorism was rising in the country, and it can only be fought together, reiterating that no single party can fight it alone.

“If we continue to fight each other, the enemy will keep taking advantage of it,” he added.

The former foreign minister maintained that Pakistan had made unparalleled sacrifices to root out terrorism, and commended the people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for bearing the most amount of sacrifices in the country’s war against terrorism.

“We had eliminated terrorism and the world was admitting that Pakistan had brought terrorism under control,” the PPP leader stated. “But then, without the approval of the parliament, and taking the people in confidence, criminals involved in heinous terrorist attacks were released from jails.”

Bilawal further said that immigrants were allowed into the country without any checks when the government in Afghanistan was overthrown. Lamenting this decision, the PPP chairman stated that it has taken the country 10 years behind. He said the terrorist attack in DI Khan yesterday was an example of that.

The former minister maintained. “Due to this one decision, the police, army as well as the people have been suffering”. He asserted that the families of those martyred in the Army Public School (APS) attack should be informed about “who traded their [children’s] blood and how”.

Read Pakistan vows retaliation after DI Khan atrocity

Regarding the hearing of the presidential reference filed to revisit the 1979 death sentence given to former prime minister and founder of PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Bilawal thanked Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa for giving the Bhutto family a chance on this case.

“We want the history to be corrected. All those involved in this crime must be exposed,” the PPP scion said, adding that this was an opportunity that could bring Pakistan out of crisis.

“No judge has used this case as a precedent,” he said.“One dictator made a decision of his own… against a prime minister who not only gave Pakistan its constitution, but also laid the foundation of the country becoming a nuclear power,” he said.

“Back then when Palestinians were being oppressed, it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who explained to the Arab countries that your oil was your power,” he recalled, adding that the US had at that time warned ZAB that they will make an example out of him.

Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for laughing at Bhutto’s slogans, Bilawal, in a veiled reference to the multiple cases plaguing PTI founder Imran Khan now, said that the PPP will continue to seek justice because the party wanted to “once and for all end the pressure that judges pass verdicts in”.

Read more ECP assures PPP elections will not be delayed

“Who raised questions when a judge said he wanted to build a dam?”, the former minister said in another veiled reference to ex-CJP Saqib Nisar.

“Does a judge have the right to say that I want to rebuild the city he belongs to? Under what legality were homes of underprivileged people demolished in Karachi,” Bilawal said as he referred to the judgments passed by ex-CJP Gulzar Ahmed that led to the demolition of Nasla Tower – a residential building – as well as homes in working class neighbourhoods of Gujjar and Orangi nullahs.

Bilawal said that in his 18 months as the foreign minister he witnessed the country’s potential himself. “This country will not be able to prosper if the politics of hatred and division is not done away with,” he noted.

Bilawal maintained that poverty, unemployment and inflation will not end in the nation if “we continue to fight among ourselves”. He said former prime minister Imran Khan failed because the PTI and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) were at each other’s throats.

Claiming that the PPP will create economic opportunities by collaborating with the private sector, the party chairman said that the country will be successful only when the government will invest in the public sector.