Bilawal says PPP ‘only party’ that wants timely elections

Former foreign minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Monday that PPP was the “only” political party that wanted elections to take place within the stipulated time of 90 days, Aaj News reported.

“We will not rest until we receive the election date notification from our election commissioner,” he said while addressing the PPP candidates, who won the local bodies elections, at Karachi’s Bilawal House.

Bilawal lamented the “so-called” political leaders who were coming up with excuses to delay polls.

“You must have seen that sometimes a so-called leader comes on screen and says: ‘Delimitation has to happen and until then [elections can be delayed]’. Okay let’s accept delimitation [needs to be done] but that process has been completed so now there should be no issue in giving the date [for polls].

“If not delimitation, then sometimes someone begins talking about the weather that ‘it is very cold in February and January so how will we contest elections,’ while others talk about the law and order situation,” he added.

The electoral watchdog has announced that elections would be held in January 2024 which would be around two months after the ECP completed the delimitation under the digital census.

However, the religio-political party – Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) – has expressed concerns over the timing, saying that it would be difficult for people in cold areas to cast votes in January.

The PPP chairman said his party will organise power shows on October 18, the day when the Karsaz bombing attack occurred in 2017, across the country. “I want to address all events in districts via video link.”

Bilawal went on to add that it would be a “test” for the party’s candidate organise the event where he would share further steps of the party. The PPP chief warned his party candidates against indulging in any wrong practices.

The PPP has called for a “level-playing field” for all parties in the general elections, reiterating that the caretaker government has no authority to announce development schemes in provinces.

The PPP chief advised his party candidates to approach the ECP and the government for the continuation of development schemes, which were approved in the budget.

He added that stopping the ongoing development scheme would be akin to stopping the projects under the Special Investment Facilitation Council programmes.