PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for closing the eyes to corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a workers convention in Chagarmati village on the outskirts of the provincial capital, the PPP leader criticised the accountability body and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

As the NAB has summoned Mr Bilawal to appear before it on Dec 24 in connection with a fake bank accounts case, he said those who though the PPP leaders would be afraid of the NAB notices were mistaken.

He said the NAB’s was a black law, which was being used to suppress political opponents of the ruling party.

The PPP leader said the NAB was arresting politicians from Sindh and Punjab but why it was not doing so in KP.

PPP leader says ‘selected’ govt has failed on all fronts

He wondered if KP was free of corruption during the PTI rule.

Mr Bilawal alleged that PTI leader Jehangir Khan Tareen had assumed the role of the deputy prime minister and was managing the Punjab and KP governments.

He said a joint investigation team should have been formed against Mr Tareen over the non-disclosure of assets.

The PPP leader said his party had faced the ‘certified traitor’ Musharraf and would face Imran Khan as well.

He said the ‘selected’ government has failed on all fronts and it was not even able to issue a notification properly.

“What type of democracy is this where elections are not transparent and where there are curbs on protests and media freedom,” he said.

Mr Bilawal said media was free to interview terrorists, captured Indian spy Kalbushan Jhadav and Indian pilot Abhinandan but it couldn’t telecast the interview of former president Asif Ali Zardari.

He said regrettably, it was not the democracy for which the PPP workers and leaders had suffered lashes and sacrificed lives.

The PPP leader said what kind of democracy existed in the country where transparent elections weren’t held in 2018.

He said elections were always stolen in the country and that attempts were made throughout 1990s to rig elections to stop the PPP from coming to power.

Mr Bilawal said in 2018, politicians tried to ensure transparent elections through constitutional amendments but the polls were rigged on a historic scale.

“In 2018, polling agents were forced out of polling stations, while result transmission system was failed to ensure selection,” he said.

The PPP leader criticised the ruling PTI for failing to fulfil election promises and said the government had promised to create 10 million jobs but it was currently planning to shut down departments to render people jobless.

He said instead of building 50 million houses, the poor people were being deprived by the government of their livelihood in the name of encroachments.

“The selected (premier) used to say that he would commit suicide instead of begging for loans but now, his government has forced the whole country into committing collective suicide,” he said.

Mr Bilawal said the ‘selected’ government had failed on all fronts.

He said his party would observe the death anniversary of former premier Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27 in Rawalpindi’s Liaqat Bagh.

“Rawalpindi, we are coming again,” he said, adding that it was the message from the party’s third generation.

The PPP leader said both his grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and his mother, Benazir Bhutto, were murdered in Liaqat Bagh.

“On Dec 27, we will convey the PPP’s message that people are the real source of power,” he said.

Senior party leaders Yousaf Raza Gilani and Nayyar Bukhari also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2019