ISLAMABAD: The PPP long march on Islamabad would start on Feb 27 and after reaching the federal capital party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will present a charter of demands before at a public meeting.

This was stated by Zulfiqar Ali Badar, spokesman for the PPP chief, while addressing a press conference at the party’s media here on Friday. Nazir Hussain Dhoki, chief coordinator to the PPP chairman, was also present.

Mr Badar said the PPP was an ideological party which had always raised voice for the poor. The PPP chairman will be leading the long march from Karachi to Islamabad against price hike, poverty and unemployment, and to send the government packing, he added.

He said Bloomberg in a report has ranked Pakistan as the 8th worst country with regards to democracy. “The selected government has pushed the country into such a situation. This is shameful,” he said, adding that the government has weakened democracy.

He said the PPP government in Sindh had restored students unions under the vision of the party chairman. “Other provincial governments should also follow suit,” he added.

Mr Badar said his father Jehangir Badar had also entered mainstream politics after being trained in student politics and remained with the PPP for over 50 years.

He said an incapable prime minister conferred certificates on members of his cabinet. He conferred certificates on the ministers who not only destroyed the country’s economy in the first eight months of the PTI government but also to a minister who had created the urea crisis in the country.

“Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been criticising Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to get attention of the incapable prime minister for getting a certificate,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2022