LAHORE – PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday said he was ready to give up his party’s government in Sindh for the sake of democracy, but the final decision in this regard would be taken according to the joint opposition’s strategy.
“I have said this before and am reiterating that if sacrifice of the Sindh government and the National Assembly is needed for the sake of democracy […] then we are ready to make this sacrifice, but the strategy and process for it will be decided by the PDM leadership,” he said while speaking to reporters in Lahore.
Bilawal said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would use these resignations as “atom bombs” and it will be mutually decided when and how to best use them. He reaffirmed that the PDM had decided that lawmakers of opposition parties would hand over their resignations to their respective party leaders by December 31.
While stating that the opposition will also stage a long march after the resignations if the PTI government refuses to quit, Bilawal conceded that in the past, “third-party forces” had used the political vacuum created in the wake of such measures.
“The PPP remains sensitive to this, that is why […] we will want to implement such a strategy and use it in such a way that the country is not thrust into that difficult situation,” the PPP leader stressed.
He lashed out at the government for its handling of the sugar crisis, flour crisis and petrol crisis, saying “the government is making no effort for reducing these difficulties for the people.”
He said if this was the promised “change” where people had to bear the burden of such crises, then all of the nation was saying with one voice “Imran Khan must go”.
Citing the examples of his mother and grandfather, Bilawal said, “We know the workings of resistance and negotiations both.” He said the “time for talks has passed,” but when “Imran Khan goes and vacates his seat then […] us democratic forces can talk and discuss”.
Bilawal was addressing the media on the sixth anniversary of the Army Public School (APS) attack in Peshawar and criticised the government for allegedly letting the “killers of our APS children” escape, saying it did not have the “strength and effort to take action against terrorists”.
Instead, he alleged, the government only clamped down on “political opponents, bloggers and media owners”.
