PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday urged Gilgit-Baltistan voters to give his party a “heavy” mandate by securing a majority in order to safeguard the region’s rights.
Bilawal was addressing a rally in Ghizer, amid a series of rallies across GB as the PPP and other political parties have, over the past few days, ramped up efforts to garner support ahead of the polls.
Referring to the nine seats the PPP had won in the last GB elections, Bilawal claimed other seats had been stolen. However, this time, “no one can steal seats from you, and this means that all three of Ghizer’s seats will be yours,” he added.
Of other political parties in the running, he said the party wanted a “heavy majority in GB — not for me, but for you” so that together they could complete Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s and Benazir Bhutto’s “incomplete” mission in the region.
The PPP chairman highlighted the achievements of those that came before him, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s subsidies that continued to benefit the region and Benazir Bhutto’s giving Ghizer the status of a district. President Asif Ali Zardari, he added, had given GB its Assembly, identity, governor and chief minister: “now it is my turn and yours”.
“It is the new generation’s responsibility to get more rights for GB,” he said, adding that he wanted the mandate from the region so that he could demand that Islamabad listen to the wishes of the GB people “before making any other provinces”.
Bilawal particularly stressed the need for a PPP majority, including all three Ghizer seats, in order to act on the right of sovereignty promised to the people.
He noted that 28,000 square kilometres of land in GB had previously belonged to the state, saying that it was due to the GB people, the PPP and its Assembly members that legislation was passed in the Assembly to render it “your land, common land” according to law.
“The people that say the PPP does not deliver on their promises — remind them that we have been in politics for three generations,” he said. “And for three generations we have had a record of being true to our word; when we make promises we deliver on them.”
He added, “Now what’s left? I want to deliver on this legislation. If I don’t get a government, if i don’t get all three of these seats in Ghizer; if I don’t get the seats in Baltistan, all of Gilgit, all of the Diamer division; if I am stopped from installing my chief minister, then I know … that whether it is the PML-N or another party, they will tear up our legislation like a piece of paper. They will not deliver on it and my promise will remain incomplete.”
More to follow
