Advisor to Sindh chief minister on information Moula Bux Chandio has said on Friday that Pakistan Peoples Party's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is expected to contest the by-election from Larkana. "Bilawal Bhutto is expected to contest by-election from Larkana constituency soon," Chandio said in an exclusive interview with the Business Recorder.
He said that party's co-chairman and former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari would return Pakistan within a few weeks. He also commended the outgoing army chief saying that General Raheel Sharif's services in uprooting terrorism were unmatched. Answering a question, he said, final schedule of Zardari's return would be made public by the PPP's core committee but most probably he would return after December 27.
Chandio, who also served a federal law minister, was very critical of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) recent political stance on national issues. "Imran Khan should have demonstrated courage like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did when the former announced the Islamabad lockdown," Chandio said adding that PTI's chairman had been doing drawing room politics while his workers were being thrashed severely by police on the streets.
He further said Imran Khan took solo-flight on Panamagate issue that led to a backlash for his PTI. He said Imran Khan always arranged raucous entertaining shows. He said he believed PTI was not leading a political movement but it was holding strident gatherings.
"The PPP does not believe in ridiculing others. There are people who use abusive language but we are just hard spoken. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has great respect for others therefore he calls politicians as uncles," he said. Chandio said that Sindh government continued to support the anti-terrorism clampdown in the metropolis because it was satisfied with the targeted operation despite some reservations especially regarding Dr Asim. He said that the provincial government had informed key national institutions about its reservations on the operation.
He said that the next military chief should also continue the Karachi operation and Zarb-e-Azb alongside helping democracy thrive in the country. On PPP leaders' bails, he said, the system recognised its discrepancies and eventually rectified them. About the CPEC, the advisor credited co-chairman of PPP Asif Zardari for initiating Gwadar project.
"On the soft inauguration of the CPEC, the federal government invited none of the PPP leaders to attend it," he said urging the PML-N government to also welcome political opponents wholeheartedly for the betterment of the nation," he said adding that on foreign tours, Nawaz Sharif accompanied his close relatives and ignore CMs of other provinces. Chandio proposed that the National Action Plan should be expanded to other provinces also because it was meant for entire country and not exclusively for Sindh.