PESHAWAR: PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked the people to vote him into power to address the challenges of unemployment, price hike and poverty.

Addressing a party workers’ convention here on Saturday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that other political parties have miserably failed in coming up to the expectations of the general public. He said that PPP see none of the political parties as its rivals in the general elections as they said poverty, unemployment and price hike as their opponents and if they were given a chance then he would serve the poor to save them from the tsunami of price hike and unemployment unleashed them during the previous two governments.

The PPP chief said that one political party has cheated the people in the name of change while the other did not know how to honour the mandate and due to poor performance has become synonym of price hike (Mehengayee League).

He defended his performance during 16-month government of the allied political parties, saying he is ready to contest the upcoming general elections on the basis of his performance. He said that during that period flood played havoc in two-third area of the country from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Sindh. Bilawal Bhutto, who had served the country as foreign minister during the period not only mobilizes the world community rather also made commitment of the reconstruction of the destroyed homes.

He said that to fulfill the promise the construction of 2 million has already been started in Sindh. He added that the land of those houses would be transferred in the name of the women members of such families.

The PPP chairman said that despite short period in power and other responsibilities, he has leaved no stone unturned in the resolution of the problems of the people. For the resolution of the economic problems, he asked the people to elect him as Prime Minister and also his Chief Minister to provide them a true opportunity to serve the people, saying their rivals have always served only gentry.

He said that the credit of the service of the people goes only to PPP and especially mentioned the launching of the social security-oriented Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the poor folk of the society.

In future, he said that PPP is going to introduce similar programmes, saying they are going to launch Benazir Kissan Card to extend the benefits of the subsidy on crops to them directly. Similarly, he said that the PPP after coming into power will also introduced Benazir Mazdoor Card. The holder of the card would be entitled to facilities like free medical treatment, education and all other incentives of available under the social security.

He said that in Sindh, they had already started the construction of 2 million houses and under this programme slum localities (katchi abadies) in all parts of the country will be regularized to make such people owners of their houses.

Bilawal Bhutto said that before the PPP rule, medical treatment in Sindh was very costly, but after coming into power they had made it free across the province. He said that during last PPP-ANP coalition government land was acquired for construction of a hospital in Peshawar also, which will be constructed after PPP come to power.

He said that as none of the political parties is in position to compete with the public-welfare oriented manifesto of PPP, therefore, the leadership of PPP, from Quaid-e-Awam to Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari had faced conspiracies and character assassination.

He said that now-a-days politics in the country is not enjoyable, saying PPP has never get level-playing field in any general election. He said that in the general election of 1988 was denied a level playing field an alliance in the name of Islamic Democratic Alliance (IJI) was constituted, but despite of those conspiracies PPP emerged as largest political party and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of any Islamic state.

Similarly, in general election of 2002, despite the hurdles created for PPP by the military dictator Pervez Musharraf and keeping of its leadership in exile, the party emerged as largest political party of the parliament. He added that the general election of 2008 was also not free and fair as on the very arrival of the late PPP Chairperson, Benazir Bhutto more than 200 workers of the party were martyred and several hundred others were injured. Later, despite, the martyrdom of the PPP leadership and delay in election for a period of 40 days, the party won the polls and formed governments at federal level and in three provinces of the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023