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 rights of the region.
The Bhutto scion is touring Britain, where the PPP and other political parties have stepped up efforts in recent days to mobilize voters for the June 7 election.
At a public rally in Ghizer, Bilawal said the PPP was seeking a “large” majority in Britain, 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 guarantee more rights for GB,” he said.
He said President Asif Ali Zardari had played a key role in giving Britain its legislative assembly, identity, governor and prime minister, adding that the next phase of progress now depended as much on him as on the people of the region.
Bilawal particularly emphasized the need for a PPP majority, including the three Ghizer seats, to be able to exercise the right of sovereignty promised to the people.
“People who say the PPP doesn’t keep its promises, remind them that we have been in politics for three generations,” he said, adding: “And for three generations we have had a track record of being true to our word; when we make promises, we keep them.”
Bilawal said 28,000 square kilometers of land in Britain used to belong to the state. He added that, thanks to the efforts of the people of the region, the PPP and its assembly members, a law was approved that declares it “your land, ejido.”
“And now what’s left? I want to fulfill this legislation. If I don’t get a government, if I don’t get the three seats in Ghizer; if I don’t get the seats in Baltistan, in the whole of Gilgit, in the whole Diamer division; if they stop me from installing my prime minister, then I know that whether it is the PML-N or another party, they will tear up our legislation like a piece of paper. They will not fulfill it and my promise will remain incomplete.”
The Bhutto scion 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 competed “to see how many people they can leave unemployed”.
“After the PPP government left, no provincial government in Britain has given up jobs, they have been stolen,” he said.
Bilawal maintained that the PPP wanted to give ownership of cultivable land to the people of the region.
He also referred to the Sindh Flood Affected People’s Housing (SPHF) programme, under which two million houses were being built for flood victims, with ownership of the houses and land being transferred to the beneficiaries.
