GHISER:
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday urged the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to vote “massively” for his party, saying a clear majority would strengthen the region’s rights efforts.
The Bhutto scion is touring Britain where the PPP and other political parties have stepped up efforts in recent days to mobilize voters for the June 7 elections.
Addressing a public rally in Ghizer, Bilawal said the PPP was seeking a “heavy” majority in Britain, not for the benefit of the party but for the people, so that together they could realize the unfinished vision of his grandfather and mother in the region.
“It is the responsibility of the new generation to secure more rights for Britain,” he said.
He said President Asif Ali Zardari played a key role in giving Britain its legislature, identity, governor and chief minister, adding that the next phase of progress now depended both on him and the people of the region.
Bilawal particularly emphasized the need for a PPP majority, including the three Ghizer seats, in order to pursue the right to sovereignty promised to the people.
“Those who say that the PPP does not keep their promises, remind them that we have been in politics for three generations,” he said, adding “And for three generations, we have had a reputation for being true to our word; when we make promises, we keep them.”
Bilawal said 28,000 square kilometers of land in Britain was once owned by the state. He added that through the efforts of the people of the area, the PPP and its assembly members, a law was passed declaring it “your land, common land”.
“Now what’s left? I want to respect this legislation. If I don’t get a government, if I don’t get these three seats in Ghizer; if I don’t get the seats in Baltistan, in the whole of Gilgit, in the whole of Diamer division; if I am stopped from installing my chief minister, then I know that whether it is the PML-N or any other party, they will tear up our legislation like a piece of paper. They will not will not keep and my promise will remain incomplete.”
The Bhutto scion compared the PPP with other parties, saying that while PPP lawmakers competed to see who could create the most jobs – “whether in government, the private sector, public-private partnerships, overseas, through technical education or skills” – other political parties were instead competing “to see how many people they could put out of work.”
“After the PPP government left, no provincial government in Britain created jobs – they were stolen,” he said.
Bilawal argued that the PPP wanted to grant ownership of arable land to the people of the region.
He also discussed the Sindh People’s Housing for Flood-Affected (SPHF) programme, under which two million housing units were constructed for flood victims, with the ownership of houses and land transferred to the beneficiaries.
