PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took more digs at former ally PML-N on Thursday and questioned its agenda in the absence of a manifesto despite the general elections being just two weeks away.
Bilawal, who has criticised the PML-N on the regular during his election trail, was addressing a campaign rally in Gujrat today when he made the remarks.
“What kind of democracy and election is this where one party has a manifesto and another — which is pitting its nominee for the prime minister for the fourth time — says their [old] manifesto is [still] valid. They can’t even tell you that if they somehow get the chance again [to rule] for the fourth time, what they’ll do,” the PPP scion said.
In contrast, he said, he had presented his 10-point agenda on the nation’s most important issues.
Bilawal said he wanted to serve the women of Punjab as a dutiful son of his mother.
“Those who said PPP is not present in Punjab and they have no competition with us are chanting ‘PPP PPP’ day and night these days,” the former foreign minister said, adding that the only party which was serious about electioneering was the PPP.
“We have arrived after many rallies and conventions and tours, but our opponents don’t even venture out of their homes. Very strange, you’ve seen so many elections, you’ve contested against them in every poll, have you ever seen them so scared before?
“There is some reason why the sher (tiger) is not venturing out to hunt. Instead, he says that someone else hunts for him, someone else deals with his opponent, everything is ready and then he will come out.”
He also called on PTI and PML-N workers to support the PPP to uphold the ideology of sanctifying the ballot, alleging that the PML-N had abandoned its former narrative.
“Come support me and we will arrange the tiger’s hunt,” Bilawal said, adding that PTI supporters also had “only one option” to defeat the PML-N by voting for the PPP through a “strategy”.
“If you want to stop the tiger and PML-N’s path, then you too need to vote for the ‘arrow’. If you do, I will stop the path of this tiger,” Bilawal said, adding that he would personally arrange the ticket for the “return flight to Avenfield apartments in London on Feb 9 where he (Nawaz) will go back”.
Bilawal vowed that if elected to power, his first step would be to order the release of all political prisoners and it would be “forbidden” for his government to arrest and jail political opponents and their workers.
PML-N’s riposte
A whole host of PML-N officials and leaders responded to their former ally’s remarks.
Addressing a campaign rally in Lahore, PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz said two kinds of parties were asking for votes.
“Some parties are such, rather, all parties apart from the PML-N are such that they’ve done nothing and their only job day and night is to criticise and accuse.”
She said there was only one party that did not do the above since it had “so many projects of service for the people that if it starts listing them then speeches exhaust.”
Taking a dig at the PPP, she said there were some parties in Punjab who had ruled a province for 15 years and yet could not list 15 projects.
Maryam said an individual was criticising her father for not presenting a manifesto. She pointed out that Nawaz’s manifesto was an Orange Line bus passing by overhead the crowd.
She said Nawaz had implemented his manifesto beyond “just giving it in paper in a press conference”.
