Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Saturday that Prime Minister Imran Khan is left with three days to resign; otherwise, he should dissolve assemblies and pave way for fresh elections.

While addressing a public rally in Okara, he also demanded restoration of student unions in the country. Throughout his public address right from Multan to Pattoki, Bilawal has been stressing on reviving the party among youngsters, farmers and old party workers.

He has been repeatedly describing pro-farmers and pro-people steps of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Also, Bilawal has urged the participants of his Awami March to support him in removing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.

Media cell of the party had also shared pictures of large containers blocking roads in Pattoki to restrict citizens from approaching the site dedicated for a public address by Bilawal Bhutto.

Bilawal has linked the Peshawar blast to the government’s failure of implementing the National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism across the country and cited the increasing incidences of terrorism due to the PTI government’s incompetence in the face of terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, party sources said former PPP stalwart Nadeem Afzal Chan is all set to rejoin the party during Bilawal’s presence in the city on Sunday (today). Earlier, while addressing public rallies at different locations on his way to Lahore through Multan Road, Bilawal said students have resisted dictatorial rules of General Ayub and General Zia-ul-Haq, which led to a ban on student unions by General Zia. Dictators and their supporters have had deprived students of their democratic rights, he said, and added that the Sindh government has restored students’ unions and the PPP wants to see them restored all over the country.

According to him, the people of the country have given their verdict in favour of his Awami long march against a selected, incapable, and illegitimate government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

He also condemned terrorist attack in Peshawar and criticised the government for its inability to maintain law and order. The PPP had thwarted terror designs during its tenure of 2008-13, he said, and vowed to continue defeating these extremists and terrorists in future as well.

Bilawal said the PPP believes that the entire country could only be prosperous if the farmers’ community is prosperous. He said Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had extended the right of ownership to farmers.

According to him, Benazir Bhutto had instructed her government to buy the entire crop of potato when farmers were unable to get the return of their crop. She did not want the farmers to sleep hungry, he asserted.

On the other hand, he said, the present government has forced farmers to buy fertilizer from black market. He said the PTI has brought destruction to the country in the name of change. The PPP chairman said that Benazir Bhutto had introduced 5 and 7 marla schemes but the PTI government could not offer a single house to anyone despite promising five million houses. Similarly, he said, the PPP had ensured increase in pay and pensions while the present government has made thousands of Pakistanis unemployed.

'No-trust motion to be tabled after long march’

PPP senior leader Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah said that the vote of no-confidence motion would be moved in the National Assembly at the conclusion of the long march of his party.

“Our long march is neither against the government nor about coming into power but is against Prime Minister Imran Khan and his failed economic policies, his lies, cheating and deceiving the nation and the destruction of the economy. We only want to get rid of Imran Khan. Our long march is also against the raising inflation in the country. Even members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are also worried about the policies of Imran Khan.

The members and the allies do not want the burden of the failed polices of Imran Khan on their shoulders. They do not want to enter in the next general election with that burden on their shoulders,” former leader of opposition in the National Assembly Shah said while talking to media on Saturday after his arrival in Islamabad.

He said, “We have to complete some groundwork with regard to no-confidence motion and the requisition of the session of the National Assembly will be submitted after that.” He said that as many as 12 to 13 members of the National Assembly (MNAs) have already taken their decision to separate themselves from Imran Khan.

Several key politicians from the PPP including former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, Syed Khursheed Shah, and Qamar Zaman Kaira have been staying in Islamabad. Former president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari is also staying in Islamabad. They have reached the capital of Pakistan on the instructions of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, which he gave during his address during the on-going long march. Now they are holding meetings with a focus on the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan.

According to the sources, the PPP leaders are making contacts with the members of opposition, the government, as well as, with the MNAs of the government’s allied parties. Another former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and party leader Hassan Murtaza have been directed to remain in Lahore and have been tasked to make political contacts in the city, the sources said.

The sources said that PPP leaders, Khursheed Shah and Yousaf Raza Gillani, are expected to meet Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

These stories were first published in Business Recorder on March 6, 2022.