SAHIWAL: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday said that incompetent rulers have deceived the nation time and again.
Bilawal, while addressing a political rally in Sahiwal’s Zafar Ali Stadium, lashed out at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif, saying that “they only care about their own businesses” and not about the “poor nation”. He said it was unfortunate how the politics of today was held hostage by the industrial mindset.
“Our relation is based on [the party’s] struggle and similar ideology,” the PPP chairman said in his address, adding that his party gave a voice to the underprivileged class.
Terming the Punjab government a “commission agent”, Bilawal said it had launched an expensive coal power project in the name of ending load shedding, adding that the plant would, in fact, produce expensive electricity.
The PPP chairman said that the commission-agent government had bought agricultural land at cheap rates and set up the power plant.
Criticising the provincial government, Bilawal said that the rights of farmers were being usurped in Punjab. He said that exploitation of the tenant farmers of Okara farms continued, adding that the PPP had always supported them.
He said that the PPP had always fought for the rights of the farmers, adding that Benazir Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had fulfilled their promises to the people of Sahiwal during their lifetime. He promised the participants of the rally that once his party comes into power, it would help form a policy that would be friendly towards the farmers.
He said that the PPP would implement a Kisan Support System to facilitate farmers. “The programme will allow farmers to get interest-free loans.” He said that salaries and pensions would be increased, and the scope of the Benazir Income Support Programme expanded. “We will also increased the wages of the labourers,” he said. “Providing wages is the government’s obligation and your right,” he added.
He said that inflation had skyrocketed to the highest level, as the prices of tomatoes and onions were beyond the reach of the middle class.
Bilawal reiterated that the general election in 2018 would be his first one and his opponents’ last one.
Published in Daily Times, September 21st 2017.
