- PPP chief alleges PML-N failed to implement NAP
- Asks govt to abandon policy of running with hare, hunting with hound
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday expressed the hope that with the help of party’s ideological workers and democratic people, the party would regain the ground it had lost during the last general elections and recent local bodies’ elections.
He was talking to various delegations of PPP’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter at Zardari House as part of his efforts to revive the party.
Bilawal said he was optimistic about PPP’s bouncing back with vigor and intensity because of the democratic and progressive ethos of the people of Pakistan which, according to him, were also the guiding principles of his party. He asked the delegates to rise above the petty personal differences and work together to cope with the challenges confronting the party.
The delegations which called on Bilawal included PPP’s Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara chapters and the People’s Doctors’ Forum. Senior PPP leaders Raja Parvez Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Faisal Karim Kundi, Rahimdad Khan, Humayoun Khan, Noor Alam Khan, Najam Din Khan and Akhunzada Chattan were also present on the occasion.
Bilawal said he would soon undertake visits to the southern and northern divisions of the province to meet with the rank and file of valiant PPP workers. He also paid rich tribute to the people of KP for their heroic fight and sacrifices in the fight against extremism and militancy, and accused the incumbent government of negligence in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).
Bilawal said the NAP was aimed at bringing reforms in FATA, but no reforms had been introduced in the Tribal Areas as yet. He also alleged that banned outfits continued to function under other names and the law enacted during the PPP government banning the resurrection of proscribed organisations under different names was totally ignored and as a result extremist and militant organisations were flourishing.
The PPP chief further said that under the law, the NACTA’s board of governors, being headed by the prime minister, had to meet once every three months, but it had not met for the past one year. He also deplored the defence minister’s recent statement that the government would talk to Afghan Taliban for security of TAPI gas pipeline, and questioned if it was still the state policy to outsource strategic security interests and policies to non-state actors. “It seems we have still not abandoned that policy and are still running with the hare and hunting with the hound,” he said, as he called upon the government to abandon the policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound in dealing with militants and militant organisations.
“I salute the people of KP for continuing to wage heroic war against militancy despite the federal government’s pathetic response to the existential threat facing the country”, he maintained.
According to PPP spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar, Saturday was the second day of Bilawal’s meetings with PPP organisations. On Friday, he met with the party’s lawyers, youth, labor, minority and women wings.