18th Amendment critics want dictatorship, says Bilawal

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said the real objection the critics were having over the 18th Amendment was that it made the constitution democratic and accepted the people as the source of power.

They want dictatorship, they want to give all powers into the hands of an individual, he remarked and added that the 18th Amendment not only gave powers to the provinces but also to the prime minister and the people.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Bilawal said when Asif Ali Zardari had entered the President’s House he was the most powerful president in the country’s history, but the 18th Amendment ensured that the prime minister’s office was most powerful in Pakistan’s history.

The incompetence and the absence of will, not the 18th Amendment, is the hurdle in executing the duties, said the PPP chairman. The federal government wasn’t even conducting aerial spray to eliminate locusts which were destroying the crops, he added.

About the coronavirus, Bilawal said relief had been provided to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “ATM machines”, not the people and every effort was made to sabotage the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Ordinance introduced by the Sindh government.

Sindh had the powers to exempt the people from paying the electricity and gas bills, but it wasn’t the time to get involved in such debates and that’s why the ordinance had been modified, said the PPP chairman.

Bilawal blasted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, without naming him, for his statements in the Senate and the National Assembly, asking him to either tender an apology or submit resignation.

The statement about Sindh card is unacceptable, he said, adding that such assertions was damaging to the country.

Don’t force us to reveal the name who had made you eyeing the prime minister’s office, the PPP chairman said, adding that they knew why he had left the PPP.

The federal minister is still trying to prove himself, not the PTI or Imran, he remarked.

Answering a question, Bilawal termed the inquiry into the sugar scam a drama and said the PTI was never interested in accountability.

The accountability process is simply aimed at fixing the rebel party members and the allies, he remarked.

How the prime minister can claim innocence in the sugar scam, didn’t he know about the approval he was giving, he questioned while referring to the permission granted to export sugar. The prime minister is either corrupt or idiot or stupid, Bilawal added.