ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has warned against tinkering with the 18th Amendment and reducing the share of the provinces in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
"The cat is out of the bag as Imran Khan's coalition partners have started speaking in unison demanding a revision of the Awards formula. Gone are the days when the federation would dip its hand into the national kitty at will and stealthily draw from it to draw at will to meet its greed at the expense of the provinces," the PPP chairman expressed these views, while addressing a Zoom meeting of the senior party leadership on Wednesday evening.
Bilawal said, while warning the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, "national integrity will be at stake, if the share of the federating units was decreased from the constitutionally guaranteed ratio."
The meeting was participated by party leaders including Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nayyer Bokhari, Syed Naveed Qamar, Raza Rabbani, Sherry Rehman, Qamar Zaman Kaira, and Farhatullah Babar.
They also discussed current political situation, enforced disappearances, the situation in erstwhile tribal areas and the holding of the APC of opposition parties and strategies.
Bilawal said that the "selected" prime mister's "ATM" Abraaj Group and K-Electric were sucking the blood of the people of Karachi, while the NAB looked the other way.
He said that some time the NAB had announced that it was preparing a reference in the BRT corruption but for some unexplained reasons the chairman NAB was now silent.
"While the BRT project stands out as a symbol of corruption, the contractors are doled out more contracts. The PIA has been ruined. A future historian will record that the country was once ruled by a "selected" prime minister whose chief contribution to the statecraft has been "witchcraft" and "corruption". While he advertised himself as "Mr Clean" the "selected" prime minister thrived on the corruption of his henchmen," the PPP chairman said.
While in the opposition, Imran denounced all amnesty schemes but now as prime minister he announced amnesty schemes to benefit his cronies, he said, adding, "when it comes to fighting history's fiercest locust attack the "selected" prime minister refused to provide the needed support to the Sindh government in contravention of the federal responsibility".
"Whether it is the sugar and flour crisis, Malam Jabba, the billion tree farce, the foreign funding case or the oil pricing, corruption of the regime floats on the surface of record for everyone to see," he said.
He said that the Auditor General of Pakistan has documented corruption and irregularities worth Rs270 billion in its first year in power of the "selected" prime minister.
Bilawal said that with Imran Khan as prime minister the country would go from crisis to crisis and its very stability was at stake.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020