RATODERO: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said “we didn’t think [about the consequences] when we were having a cup of tea in Kabul – an obvious reference to former spymaster Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed who had visited the Afghan capital after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

“We invited the terrorists to live in Karachi and Fata [the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area],” Bilawal said about the PTI government’s decision to hold peace talks with the Taliban [TTP] and allow them to resettle in Pakistan – a move that has proved to be a disaster for the country.

Addressing a rally in Ratodero Town of Larkana, Bilawal warned that the people and the police had eliminated the terrorists through sacrifices, but they were again gaining strength.

The weapons employed by the United States in Afghanistan against the terrorists were being used in Pakistan, he added. Promising to save and rescue the country from the prevailing challenges, the PPP chairman said the people would elect a new thinking on February 8. He also repeated his stance of burying the politics of hate and division while forming a people’s government.

“The menace of terrorism is rising again,” the PPP chairman said, adding that he would root out the threat.

In his remarks against those moving the country’s top judiciary which led to the removal of the then prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, the PPP chairman said someone had reached the courts whenever his party delivered.

However, he went on to say that they would provide jobs to the masses at their doorsteps.

The government should be of the workers and farmers, not of old politicians, said Bilawal in yet another direct attack on PML-N Nawaz Sharif who is eyeing a record fourth term in office after being removed from office each time he got elected by the people. Bilawal remarked that people would ultimately suffer if Nawaz was “imposed” for the fourth time.

Bilawal has vowed to bring the country out of political and constitutional crises after coming to power. He said he would become “young prime minister” of Pakistan if the masses supported him in elections. The PPP chairman recalled Shehbaz Sharif had done nothing for Sindh after becoming prime minister.

The former foreign minister said terrorism is again raising its ugly head and there is a strong need to crush the terrorists.