Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday accused the government of using National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other institutions against the party, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a press conference at Jacobabad, he claimed despite so much pressure on PPP, the party was becoming more popular in Sindh.  

Commenting on Supreme Court’s verdict on by-election in NA-75, Daska in which the court had retained the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order for reelection in the entire constituency, Bilawal stressed the need for implementing the verdict in all those constituencies where, according to him, elections were rigged.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNzDaHmrIcc

PPP chairman said the root cause of all the ills in the country was ‘selected’ Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said while people were facing inflation and unemployment, the government was giving relief to the rich and tormenting the poor.  

He was of the view that change in the country’s economy would only be brought about through a change in policies, and not merely through a change in finance ministers. “Ministers were changed twice in three years but still there is no improvement in the country’s economy,” he regretted.

Bilawal said arrangements were being made to hand over the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

PPP chairman said he would challenge the ‘handover’ of SBP to the IMF through a presidential ordinance.

He said former president and his father Asif Ali Zardari had once said that NAB and the economy could not go together. “Now other political parties are also admitting that Zardari was right,” he added.

Bilawal said it was the ‘selected’ who could not run the country’s economy, and that Nadeem Babar was only made the ‘scapegoat’.

He accused the NAB of causing Rs16 million loss to the national exchequer. “Who will hold the bureau for that?” he questioned, and said even the war-torn Afghanistan was more developed than Pakistan.

He repeated the allegation that attempts were made in the 2018 general elections that people’s representatives were not elected. “There was rigging in every constituency in the 2018 general elections,” he alleged.  

PPP chairman said he prayed for the recovery of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “Maulana Fazl cannot be annoyed with PPP,” he hoped, and said that he had good relations with both Maryam and JUI-F chief.  

Contributed by Muhammad Ali