Bilawal terms imbalance of power a great challenge to democracy

PPP chief calls for restoring power to elected representatives

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asserted that a great challenge to democracy lies in restoring the imbalance of power between elected representatives and un-elected but powerful organs of the state.

PPP Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted the PPP chairman as saying this on Sunday, as he addressed party workers and office-bearers in Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu and Karak divisions on the third day of his meeting in the worker’s programme at Zardari House, Islamabad.

Bilawal said that the PPP manifesto clearly stated that power belongs to the people and the people alone. All other institutions of the state are subservient to the will of the people, he said.

“However, we have witnessed over the past decades that un-elected elements have systematically encroached upon state powers,” he said.

“What is worse is that while the elected representatives have been held responsible for all the ills and misfortunes on one pretext or the other the real wielders of state power have not been held accountable even for the worst crimes committed against the state and the society,” he said.

“Wielding real state power without accountability by some while holding powerless elected people responsible for the nation’s multiple failures is a crisis of our democracy that must be addressed,” he said.

This is a challenge before all democratic forces in the country. However, the PPP as the party of anti- status quo had a greater responsibility and must take the lead in correcting this imbalance, he said.

“The Party can take the lead only when our workers are united and committed and that is why I ask you to forge unity in you ranks,” Bilawal said.

Bilawal Bhutto said that the PPP has always borne the brunt of the establishment, un-elected elements, the forces of status quo and those who refuse to bow before the verdict of the people.

He said that the PPP’s founder and Pakistan’s first directly elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was a victim of judicial murder. “Our second chairperson and the Muslim World’s first elected female Prime Minister was dubbed a ‘security risk’ and chased and hounded all her life. The Sindhi prime ministers were treated differently as compared to non-PPP and non-Sindhi prime ministers. Countless workers of the Party have been executed, lashed, jailed and sent into exile for raising a voice for democracy and peoples’ rights,” he said. Bilawal Bhutto said that soon he would visit all parts of the country and mobilise all workers.