Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addresses a press conference in Karachi on November 7, 2025. SCREENGRAB
LAHORE:
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has once again opposed the idea of banning any political party, but said that political parties should also take a responsible political stance.
Speaking to the media after visiting the house of late senior party worker Zubaida Jafri in Baghbanpura area of Lahore – where he condoled with the family on her death – the PPP chief on Wednesday said it is the government’s responsibility to give space to the opposition in politics.
“All political forces must play a serious role to improve the country,” he said.
However, the PPP chairman also indirectly criticized Imran Khan’s PTI, stating that despite Pakistan facing twin-pronged threats from the eastern and western borders, instead of standing with the armed forces against the country’s adversaries, “one political party” consumed all its energy in trying to bring down through social media conspiracies and hatching conspiracies.
“Instead of attacking national heroes, they should focus on issues and public service,” he said.
Further doubling down on the PTI, he said the political party was trying to create a rift between the people and the army by playing the role of a “political antichrist.”
“I am free. I can criticize the government and also praise it. Someone should go and tell these people that politics is not extremism.”
He said that PTI’s politics had proved harmful even to themselves.
He added that if a political party supported terrorists, there could be a risk of governorship where the party was in power.
However, Bilawal said he had not seen Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Faisal Karim Kundi’s statement in this regard. PTI rules KP and the federal government has threatened the party that the imposition of governor’s rule in the province is not out of the question.
During the lecture, Bilawal also took a veiled swipe at Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
Expressing his lack of confidence in the Election Commission of Pakistan, he said electoral reform is a must before the next elections so that “no chief minister is accused of being a product of Form 47”.
The PPP chairman, a key ally of the PML-N-led government, said neither government allies nor the opposition have any confidence in the ECP.
He called on parties on both sides of the aisle to work toward electoral reforms. Bilawal once again alleged rigging in the elections for DG Khan, saying that PPP candidate Dost Muhammad Khosa had won but was not declared the winner. He promised to fight against this injustice.
Bilawal said neither he nor his party could be accused of securing a Form 47 victory – a euphemism used to describe an establishment-endowed seat where election results are allegedly altered.
He invited Maryam Nawaz and other PML-N leaders to come and contest elections from Sindh.
Bilawal said Afghanistan was playing into the hands of anti-Pakistan forces by harboring terrorists and miscreants. He said the impression out there was that those involved in terrorist activities had the full support of Afghanistan’s interim setup.
Later in the day, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari welcomed a former PTI leader and caretaker of a famous shrine into the party fold. Bilawal also held meetings with youth and student organizations and heard their suggestions and problems to improve their respective organizations.
The PPP chief is scheduled to visit Chiniot to condole the death of Hasan Murtaza’s father. His departure will mark the end of his Lahore tour as he is expected to return to Faisalabad from where he is likely to travel to Islamabad.
He was accompanied during the visit by Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nayyar Bukhari, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Faisal Mir and Nargis Khan.
