Turning his guns on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said the PTI-led provincial government was practicing “extremist politics”. And neglecting its primary responsibility to serve the people.
The former foreign minister’s remarks came a day after the former ruling party boycotted the All Parties Conference (APC), which was called by KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi over the recent tribal clashes in which at least 133 People were killed and 186 were injured.
The Imran Khan-founded party’s stand was: “PPP has no mandate in KP. […] It wants to hold a lifeless exhibition session to present itself as a democratic party.”
Taking to X2, formerly known as Twitter, Bilawal lauded PPP-backed Governor Kandi’s move to “build political consensus” and address the problems faced by the people of KP. is
“Dialogue between political forces is not only the most effective tool for addressing political, economic and security challenges, but is essential for building the political consensus and stability necessary to achieve results.”
Criticizing the provincial government led by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, the PPP chief said: “It is unfortunate that the government with the executive authority and primary responsibility to resolve these issues has not formed the government. Since then, he has not spent a single day serving the people of his province.
“They are busy pursuing their extremist politics at the expense of the people of Pakhtun Khawa,” he added.
A senior PPP leader condemned the PTI’s decision to ignore the APC, saying: “Despite being invited, they refused to attend or even participate in this APC.”
He said that the people of KP deserve to have their problems solved. The PPP Chairman expressed his determination to continue his fight for the real rights of the people of all provinces including KP with or without the help of the provincial government in Peshawar.
It may be mentioned here that the PTI on Wednesday alleged that the PPP was “actively supporting” the Centre’s “hypocritical agenda” to ban the PTI. He further alleged that the party led by Bilawal is also involved in arresting its workers and supporters in Sindh.
Separately, PTI spokesman Sheikh Waqas Akram said the decision to boycott the APC was based on the PPP’s “silence on the massacre of unarmed and peaceful civilians” – a “direct attack” on protesters in Islamabad. Firing”, referring to the party’s allegations
The PTI claimed that at least 12 of its supporters were killed when law enforcers opened “direct fire” at them during a “do or die” protest in Islamabad last month.