PPP will foil all conspiracies: Zardari

President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday that conspirators were busy hatching schemes and came up with new plots every day, but the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would foil all their schemes and “Bhutto-ism will prevail”.
The president was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Waseela-e-Haq Sindh scheme, which is aimed at creating a new middle class in the province, by providing self-employment opportunities to 35,000 people aged between 19 to 35 years who have at least passed secondary school examinations and are unemployed.
“Let those who merely boast of bringing change and raise hollow slogans witness today how change is brought about through the creation of a new middle class, breaking the generational cycle of poverty and to power national growth and economy,” President Zardari told the ceremony. The president launched the innovative programme by pressing a computer button at Bilawal House here, which made huge computer screens display the names of lucky winners of Rs 300,000 interest-free loans each so they can establish their own businesses ranging from transport to cattle raising, from auto workshops to pharmaceuticals, regardless of their religion, political affiliation or the urban/rural divide. Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters another condition that entitled people to be included in the draw was that their family must score between 16 and 30 on the poverty scale devised by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), in accordance with the internationally accepted standards of measuring poverty.
Babar said the special scheme was devised under the directions of President Zardari and powered by contributions from the Sindh government from its own budget. A large number of jobless people having education up to matric in the province had qualified for inclusion in the draw, out of which 35,000 were picked by the computer randomly on Friday, he added. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also pressed another computer button to randomly select another batch of over 13,700 beneficiaries under the normal BISP programme of draws held after regular intervals. The beneficiaries of the normal programme were also given Rs 300,000 interest-free loan to start their own businesses, but it was meant for even poorer segments of society who scored no more than 16-17 on the poverty scale.