2018 general elections damaged country: Bilawal Bhutto

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Saturday said that the “rigged” general elections of 2018 have damaged the country more than any other event in its history that saw Prime Minister Imran Khan coming into power.

“On this day, a selection was held which has caused a great damage to the country and undermined its democratic system,” Bilawal hit out at the ruling PTI, which is celebrating its landmark victory in the general elections. He was addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.

Earleir in the day, Minister for Information Shibli Faraz said July 25, 2018 was a historic day in the country’s democratic history “as on that day the people of Pakistan, including the PTI workers joined hands to lay the foundation of a new thought process”.

“An outdated, privileged and corrupt system based on nepotism and favouritism was defeated in the general election on that day,” he added.

Bilawal, while pointing out irregularities during the 2018 polls, said, “I wonder why security personnel were deployed inside the polling stations”. “Never in the history was such a step taken… not even during the general elections 2008 when terrorism was at its peak in the country,” he added.

The PPP chairman said Imran Khan has failed to fulfill his promises of making Pakistan a corruption-free country, providing five million low cost houses and millions of jobs to the masses.

“Today, the entire nation is on one page that ‘selected’ Imran Khan has to go… he has destroyed the country’s democracy and economy.”

Commenting on the newly-introduced ordinance related to the incarcerated Indian spy, Bilawal said: “You [PM Imran Khan] were supposed to become an ambassador of Kashmir but you have become an advocate of Kulbhushan Jadhav”.

Federal Law and Justice Minister Farogh Naseem on Friday had urged the opposition parties in the National Assembly not to create hurdles in the passing of an ordinance meant to allow Jadhav to file a review appeal against his conviction.

He clarified that the ordinance was in line with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) judgment last year in Jadhav’s case and not to facilitate the Indian spy.