Islamabad: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari hit out on Wednesday at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), asking the party’s provincial leadership to exploit the situation for the party’s benefit.
“The myth of so-called good governance and Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan) being peddled by some has been totally exposed,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said while talking to a delegation of party leaders from KP at the Zardari House here on Wednesday evening.
Former federal ministers Anwar Saifullah Khan, Najamuddin Khan and former provincial president of the party Zahir Shah were also part of the delegation which called on Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who arrived in the capital four days ago to attend a public meeting in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir.
According to an official handout issued by the PPP’s Media Centre, the PPP chairman said that the situation created in the province because of what he called bad governance of the PTI had created “a political space for the PPP to exploit and utilise by giving an alternative work plan about how to address peoples’ problems”.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari asked them to reach out to party workers and people in the province with a view to mobilising the people.
“It is of critical importance that our party office-bearers and leaders stand by the people and partake in their joys and sorrows in these difficult times when the government has not been able to redress their grievances,” the PPP leader said.
The provincial party leader discussed the overall political situation in the province with the chairman during the meeting.
The official statement, which seems to have been prepared with caution, has avoided naming the PTI or Imran Khan apparently because the two parties are now part of an opposition alliance against the government over the Panama Papers leaks issue.
Later, former interior minister Rehman Malik also called on the PPP chairman and apprised him of the organisational matters of the overseas chapters of the party.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the overseas wings were the arms and force multipliers of the party and directed Mr Malik to keep him abreast of their issues.
Earlier in the day, Mr Bhutto-Zardari, through his tweets targeted Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, alleging that his plan to become prime minister due to Mr Sharif’s illness had failed.
“Ch Nisar’s campaign to become PM isn’t going as well as planned and he is getting frustrated,” he tweeted.
“Zia said the party (PPP) was over. Sharifs thought same. People of Punjab proved them wrong,” he said in another tweet.
