Bilawal Bhutto seeks MQM help to topple federal govt

Karachi: Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Monday asked for the help of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to topple the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Islamabad.

“Help us save Karachi and topple the PTI government,” he said while addressing a ceremony after inaugurating four development projects on Monday.

Bilawal Bhutto said that his government would offer an equal number of ministries to the MQM-P if it breaks off its alliance with the Imran Khan-led federal government. “Topple it, topple it, topple Imran’s government,” he added.

The PPP will stand with you 100%, he assured the MQM leaders. The number of seats you have been given in centre, we will give those to you in Sindh, the PPP scion added.

“For Karachi’s sake, all the ministries that the MQM-P has in the Centre, we will give them in Sindh. But the only condition is to send him [Imran Khan] back home,” he clarified. “Today or tomorrow, all the facilitators, all the allies will have to take this decision, will have to save Pakistan and end Naya Pakistan,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that MQM-P is one of the core allies of the federal government and its MNAs Farogh Naseem and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui hold the federal ministries for law and information technology, respectively.

Bilawal also criticised the PTI government over its decision of removing 800,000 people from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), saying that it was “cruel and unjust of the government to snatch Rs1,000 from the poor women in this economic situation”. He vowed to challenge the exclusion of the more than

800,000 people from the programme in a court of law. “The entire nation is embroiled in a plethora of issues. The problems of the masses are escalating every day,” he added.

He said that the government’s anti-encroachment drive was rendering the residents of shantytowns homeless in extreme winter. He also urged the mayor of Karachi to halt the anti-encroachment drive to protect the people from the cold weather.

Condemning the government’s gas policy, Bilawal Bhutto said that the people of Sindh were suffering due to suspension of gas supply, adding that, “We will have to snatch our share from the government.”

The PPP chief lamented that the federal government was not providing Sindh its rightful share in resources and funds, adding that the PPP cannot “compromise” on the province’s rights.

“At the same time, we will have to think and come up with a way to expand the scope of our development. How can we work more with fewer funds,” he said, adding that public-private partnership was one way to work on mega-development projects.

Bilawal Bhutto said that PPP had initiated several development projects in Karachi, which include the construction of two bridges and an underpass which, he said, were “obviously very important for Karachi’s communication network” and will help in improving the city’s traffic woes. He said that Karachi’s development was important for the entire country, not just the city’s residents.

“PPP government is the only government in the country that is working and we can show that,” he said but acknowledged that his party’s efforts to provide health, education and other facilities to Sindh’s people were not enough to “meet the demand,” he said.

However, he further said that foreign publications too have lauded the policy of the Sindh government. Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar remarked that the party will decide on Bilawal’s offer.

He said that none of the political parties have fulfilled their agreements in the past. Even the federal government isn’t giving the city the attention it deserves, he added.

PTI leader Haleem Adil Sheikh, while responding to Bilawal’s claims, said that there is no restriction on people dreaming to come on top. “The PPP used to deal with Altaf-led MQM. The MQM now is not the same,” he remarked.

Bilawal will go back home soon, he claimed. “I just want to ask him what have they even done for Karachi in the last 12 years? There is nothing but corruption and trash.”