PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed that the recent allegations of murder against the Indian government by Canada have exposed the South Asian country.
“It is a huge allegation that the Canadian government has accused India of killing a Sikh Canadian citizen on its soil, which should have been highlighted by the media and the interim Foreign Office,” he told reporters after visiting the residence of journalist, Imdad Soomro, to condole the passing of his father on Tuesday.
“India has been exposed before the world now.”
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was designated by India as a “terrorist” in July 2020.
In a tit-for-tat move, the Indian external affairs ministry expelled a senior Canadian diplomat hours after Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat over the killing of Sikh leader
“It is time for the international community to accept that India has become a rogue, Hindutva terrorist state that has not only conducted terrorism in Kashmir, not only have we caught their spies involved in terrorism in our country, but they have now been caught violating the sovereignty of a NATO member state,” said the PPP chairman.
He added that it was not just a violation of Canadian sovereignty, but international law and norms. The government should call on the international community to stand with the people of Canada and highlight the atrocities of India, which he described as a “religio-fascist state,” he stated.
Trudeau had told the Canadian Parliament that he had raised the murder directly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi last week.
When asked, the PPP chief replied that their demand for a level playing field was from the PML-N. In the recent past, the former Sindh ruling party has hinted that the N-league was “being treated as favourites” ahead of the general elections.
“Neither the establishment nor anyone else has the mandate to announce the election date. The mandate lies with the Election Commission,” he said and reiterated that the PPP’s central executive committee has demanded for the election schedule and date to be announced “immediately”.
He went on to add that the law was clear on development funds, and federal, provincial, and local budgets.
Read: PPP will decide on political alliance after election date: Bilawal
“If schemes have been approved and are budgeted, then they should continue, perhaps it would not have been so concerning had it been a question of 90 days only but even the election date has not been announced yet. It cannot be so that the budgeted schemes in Sindh are not allowed to continue but federal projects are, including those of the past, ongoing ones, as well as new initiatives,” the PPP chief said.
He was concerned over the caretaker Punjab government’s new initiative to provide interest-free loans to judges so that they can buy plots.
“This puts a moral, legal, and constitutional obligation on the ECP to ensure that there is a level playing field in the Centre as well as the provinces,” Bilawal said, “if there are to be no new or ongoing schemes in Sindh, then it should be the same in the rest of the province.”
