PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday promised to give Gilgit-Baltistan the constitutional status of a province and root out unemployment, as he leads the campaign for regional elections scheduled to be held on November 15, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

He blasted the PTI government for not fulfilling the promises made before coming into power and said they had done nothing to carve out a new province in south Punjab.

The PTI is in power for over seven years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but not a single new hospital has been established in the province during this period, the PPP chairman told three public gatherings in Skardu.

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Bilawal said the people of Gilgit-Baltistan need their right, not a lollypop, adding that the youth must have to be protected from the destructive change of Imran Khan.

On Friday, the PPP chairman had kicked started the election campaign from Ghanche where he told his party supporters that Gilgit-Baltistan would have to be saved from Imran Khan.

He was depriving people of their jobs and not paying salaries, Bilawal said, adding that the state of affairs had triggered protests from different circles.

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Gilgit-Baltistan demands rights and Islamabad would have to listen to the people, he said, asking the crowd to support his party so that the message could be conveyed to the federal capital.

Promising jobs as well as health and education, the PPP chairman said they would continue asking Islamabad until the Gilgit-Baltistan people didn’t get their rights.

The launch of election campaign was the start of a struggle for the rights of people, he remarked, hoping that they would support him just they had done in case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

As the regional elections are getting nearer, the opposition has been fearing rigging and repeatedly warning the PTI-led federal government against any interference and manipulation.

In this connection, Bilawal warned on several occasion in recent weeks that rigging in Gilgit-Baltistan elections would be a national security risk for the country. 

Similar views were expressed by the PML-N as Ahsan Iqbal, the party’s general secretary, said, “The interest of Pakistan lies in free, fair and transparent elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.”

He warned that Pakistan could not afford to any political controversy or dispute in Gilgit-Baltistan which had already become a flashpoint in the region with many countries eyeing on that.