Photo courtesy PPP Media Cell
Concluding Awami Long March on Islamabad, PPP chairman maintains opposition parties will unite and oust incumbent prime minister
The people of Pakistan will not forgive anyone who tries to use illegal and unconstitutional means to save Prime Minister Imran Khan from being removed through a no-confidence motion, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday.
“I warn all allies, facilitators and supporters of the PTI government not to interfere in politics to save the ‘puppet’ prime minister,” he told the participants of the Awami Long March at its conclusion near D-Chowk in Islamabad. “It is the last chance for you to show that you stand with the people of the country,” he said, adding that any individual who “illegally and unconstitutionally” tried to save the “selected” would be made answerable by the people.
The 10-day Awami Long March commenced in Karachi before winding its way through Sindh and Punjab and culminating at the federal capital. Attracting hundreds of thousands, it has been seen as a means for the PPP to restore its standing in Punjab, where it has struggled to attract voters in recent years.
During his address, Bhutto-Zardari stressed that the intent of the march was to save the country and complete the mission of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto to grant basic rights to the people of Pakistan. Noting that the no-confidence motion was a “democratic” means of ousting Khan, he said that people from Karachi through Hyderabad, Multan and Lahore had all come out to express their desire for an end to the rule of the “selected” prime minister.
The PPP chief said the incumbent prime minister had used to say that he would immediately resign if anyone in the public called for it. “Now this public gathering of lakhs of people are asking for his resignation,” he said. Referring to the PTI’s attempts to initiate talks with the Pakistani Taliban, he said this “amnesty” for terrorists was unacceptable. “The PTI government was trying to give amnesty to terrorists without the permission of Parliament and the people,” he said.
Bhutto-Zardari said Khan had “damaged” the nation’s foreign policy, isolating the country from the global community. The government also mishandled the Kashmir issue, he added. “You have harmed democracy, you have conspired to abolish 1973 Constitution, you are trying to rob the rights of all provinces which is not acceptable to us,” he said. He said the entire nation was troubled by the economic policies of the incumbent government, adding that Khan “hurts the common man and gives relief to the rich.”