Difficult to keep ministry if govt doesn't fulfil promises made with flood affectees: Bilawal

Foreign Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday that it would become increasingly difficult for him to keep his ministry if the government did not fulfil promises made with flood affectees, Aaj News reported.

Addressing a ceremony held at the Chief Minister’s House in Karachi, Bilawal said the government had been delaying the relief funds promised for flood affectees of the province Sindh.

“During his visits to the flood-hit areas of Sindh, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had made several commitments with regards to the relief and rehabilitation of flood affectees. None of these promises has been fulfilled,” Bilawal said.

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Bilawal said he would speak to PM Shehbaz in this regard, adding that if the PM kept ignoring flood victims’ problems, it would be difficult for him to remain in his position.

The foreign minister also raised questions on the ongoing digital census, saying the “faulty” census wasn’t acceptable to the government of Sindh.

“If the government wants to continue with this census, it will not receive any assistance from the provincial government,” he warned.

Bilawal said the Sindh government was providing every possible support to the flood victim whose houses and livelihoods were destroyed.

He said Sindh was the only province that was selling 40 Kg sugarcane at Rs4,000 and when the PPP came into power, the exports volume of Pakistan was significantly low but the former president Asif Ali Zardari focused a lot on the agricultural sector to provide relief to the farmers.

PPP chairman said the small farmers would be provided relief through the Benazir Income Support Porgramme while mentioning the federal government should fulfill its pledges to the flood victims.

He added the floods destroyed crops of five million acres and the floods wreaked havoc on the agricultural economy.

In his criticism of Imran Khan, the former prime minister and Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Bilawal accused him of cowardice for allegedly “hiding like a rat” at his residence in Lahore’s Zaman Park to evade arrest.

Bilawal insisted that their competition was not with Imran Khan, but with inflation, and urged the government to take concrete steps to control the spiralling inflation in the country.