KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto criticized the PTI leaders and workers for ‘violent response’ in response to arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He said the PPP and its workers did not resort to any violence even after its founder former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death.
“The PPP did not resort to violence even after its founder Zulfqiar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death,” said the party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing a press conference in Karachi on Thursday.
The PTI’s response, Bilawal said, was quite different.
“Had they [the PTI] been the politicians they would have given a peaceful response,” said the PPP chairman, adding that the PPP turned out to be militant group.
“I remember so far that the TTP attacked the GHQ and now it is the PTI,” said the PPP chairman, adding that not even a single party gave such response even when the party founder Zulfiqar Bhutto was sentenced to death. Three millions people were there to welcome his mother at Lahore airport but his mother and the party workers did not resort to any violence, he added.
He stated that the PTI supporters attacked the Jinnah house in Lahore.
“We always gave political response and stopped our workers from resorting to violence,” said the PPP chairman, regretting over the response of the PTI workers.
“I told them earlier that he [Imran] is political terrorist,” said Bilawal Bhutto, adding that they would be bound to explain all these things. He hoped that the PTI leaders and workers would not get any relief this time.
Bilawal Bhutto said that his party had been opposing the existence of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but it was the PTI which continued to support it. He said when Mian sahib [Nawaz Sharif] came into power the PPP asked him to shut down the NAB but their demand was not met.
“Today, our allies in the government have accepted our stance to close down NAB. But Imran Khan while being in the power and even after his government continued to support the NAB,” said the chairman. He said the recent amendments in the NAB laws were also not accepted by PTI and it is Imran Khan himself who is getting benefit of these amendments.
“The allegations are serious against Imran Khan as he was prime minister when the UK government wanted to send that amount of 190m pound back to Pakistan, and he misused his powers and hid the envelope containing the details of the huge amount and got it approved from the cabinet,” said Bilawal Bhutto.
“I challenge the members of the cabinet if they deny to this fact. The cabinet gave that money to Malik Riaz so that he could pay his fine,” he added.
He stated that it was the serious allegation and if they [the PPP] had been the accused they would have been behind the bars, claiming that Imran Khan did politics in the name of accountability.
The PPP chairman said that Imran Khan should have been so brave that he should present himself to face the cases, adding that he was arrested under the law because it was a very big amount.
He advised the PTI to hold all those who resorted to violence accountable and stopped such kind of response to save itself from further damage.
