- Bilawal says that new leadership and politics are needed to come out of the crises.
- Former Finance Minister says that people’s problems will not be solved amid ‘personal enmity’.
- “Pakistan will not progress unless the vote is respected.”
As the country heads towards general elections, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday stressed the need for new leadership and new politics, saying “old politicians have to be sent home”.
Addressing a workers’ conference in Abbottabad, Bilawal said other parties were into old politics but the PPP should have a “principle and manifesto”.
New leadership and new politics are needed to come out of the crisis, he said, targeting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which has projected its supremo Nawaz Sharif as a possible candidate for the post of prime minister.
Nawaz is in Pakistan after ending a four-year self-imposed exile in October, but his participation in the election is in doubt due to legal issues – as he was declared ineligible to hold public office.
Bilawal said, “A leadership that is not trapped in the past, that thinks about the future, does not get trapped in politics and division.”
He further said that people’s problems will not be solved if “personal animosity continues like this”. “Pakistan will not progress unless the vote is respected.”
Without naming anyone, the former External Affairs Minister called for choosing someone as Prime Minister for the second or fourth time instead of someone who has never been given a chance.
Bilawal said, “If you give me a chance, I promise that I will never let you down.”
He promised to double salaries over the next five years if he got the chance. “Only then can the country be saved from the tsunami of inflation,” he said.
The PPP Chairman said that apart from poverty, unemployment and inflation, his party has no opponents.
He said, “We have a plan on how to end inflation and how to provide relief to the country.”
