GHIZER:
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday urged the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to vote “overwhelmingly” for his party, saying a clear majority would strengthen efforts to defend the region’s rights.
The Bhutto clan is on a tour of GB, where the PPP and other political parties have stepped up efforts in recent days to mobilize voters for the June 7 polls.
Addressing a public meeting in Ghizer, Bilawal said the PPP was seeking a “heavy” majority in GB, not for the benefit of the party but for the people, so that together they could fulfill the unfinished vision of his grandfather and mother in the region.
“It is the responsibility of the new generation to secure more rights for GB,” he said.
He said President Asif Ali Zardari had played a key role in giving GB its legislature, identity, governor and chief minister, adding that the next phase of progress now depended on both him and the people of the region.
Bilawal particularly emphasized the need for a PPP majority, including all three Ghizer seats, to pursue the right of sovereignty promised to the people.
“The people who say that PPP is not living up to its promises – remind them that we have been in politics for three generations,” he said, adding “And for three generations we have had a record of being true to our word; when we make promises, we deliver.”
Bilawal said 28,000 square kilometers of land in GB used to belong to the state. He added that due to the efforts of the people of the region, the PPP and its assembly members, a law was passed declaring it “your country, common country”.
“What is left? I will deliver on this legislation. If I don’t get a government, if I don’t get all three of these seats in Ghizer; if I don’t get the seats in Baltistan, the whole of Gilgit, the whole of Diamer division; if I am prevented from installing my chief minister, then I know that whether it is another party’s party, they will be part of the PML-N. paper. They will not deliver on that and my promise will remain incomplete.”
The Bhutto clan compared the PPP to other parties, saying that while PPP lawmakers competed to see who could create the most jobs – “whether in government, the private sector, public-private partnerships, abroad, through technical education or skills” – other political parties instead competed “to see how many people they can put out of work”.
“After the PPP government left, no provincial government in GB has given jobs – they have been stolen,” he said.
Bilawal maintained that OPP wanted to give ownership of arable land to the people of the region.
He also referred to the Sindh People’s Housing for Flood-Affected (SPHF), under which two million homes were built for flood victims, with the ownership of both the houses and the land being transferred to the beneficiaries.
