LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has had a history of turning ever crisis that has hit the country into a catastrophe, said Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“The challenges that Pakistan is facing today are the most difficult ones we have faced in history whether it’s the coronavirus, locust problem or economic challenges,” he said in a press conference at Bilawal House in Lahore on Wednesday.

“But the government, instead of making things better, worsens it every time,” Bilawal said, pointing out that that’s exactly what it did with the pandemic and the locust issue.

He said that the locusts could have had been dealt with earlier on but the government refused to take any step against it.

“The increase in petrol prices is like a bomb that has been dropped on the public,” the PPP chairperson said. “This just shows the hypocrisy of the government and its habit of taking U-turns.”

Bilawal said that in the budget the government had said that it will reduce the petrol prices but did exactly the opposite one day before the budget was approved. “They are just letting the oil companies make up for their losses without realising that it will bring a tsunami of inflation.”

“This year’s budget is a clear indication that the prime minister is only working for the rich and not for the poor,” he said, adding that PM Khan hasn’t ever even met those working in the frontline i.e. the doctors, paramedic staff and labourers.

Bilawal called the government’s claims of the coronavirus curve flattening false. He said that the country’s COVID-19 cases and it fatalities were still very high. “The government has not taken any step to curb the spread of the virus and has instead sabotaged the lives of the people.”

Sindh has set an example with its allowance to healthcare workers and the Shaheed Package. “We want these things to be implemented in other parts of the country as well,” the PPP chairperson said, emphasising that even those health care workers who work in ERs and OPDs should be given the allowances as they are at risk as well.

Bilawal named PM Khan the prime minister of social media. “He is not ready to become the prime minister of Pakistan,” he said, adding that he has invited the PM multiple times for debates in Parliament. “But he always makes his speeches when we aren’t there, behind our backs,” he said. “These people want to go back to one unit and take away the 1973 Constitution from us.”

Bilawal added that what the government was doing with the PIA pilots was “unfair and unjust”.

He called the Ehsaas Programme a fraud saying that most of the recipients didn’t even get the full amount promised to them. “This government is a mere puppet,” he said.

The PPP chairperson lauded the efforts of the Sindh police and Rangers for foiling the Karachi Stock Exchange terrorist attack. He said that the martyrs hailed from Sindh and saluted them.

Bilawal also said that the Sindh government has announced rewards for the martyrs and those injured. The situation of the province has improved because of the sacrifices of the security forces. They are the pride of every Pakistani, he added.—NNI