The former prime minister and senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Sunday that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani was responsible for not attending the Senate’s session on January 28, 2022, at which the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill was passed by just one vote, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.   

Speaking to the media in Sanghar (Sindh), he boasted that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had spread a network of roads in Sindh when he was the country’s prime minister. “On the contrary, it is the PPP government’s ‘incompetence’ that there is a dearth of teachers and doctors at Sindh schools and hospitals,” he added.  

Underscoring the point that there are differences between political parties, Abbasi went on to add that the prospects of PML-N competing against the PPP in the next general elections could not be ruled out. “We have to foresee the future and prepare ourselves for an electoral contest against the PPP,” the senior PML-N leader said emphatically. 

He, however, said that despite all these differences and the spirit of competition, all opposition parties were one when it came to removing the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. 

Claiming that the present government had failed to deliver on its promises, Abbasi demanded fresh elections in the country.

He stressed the need for introducing such a local bodies (LBs) system in which the local governments, and not MNAs or MPAs, had all the powers.