——- Bilawal urges Sindh govt to take stern measures against corruption
——- Labels corruption as a cancer
From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has directed the Sindh government to take decisive action against corruption, labelling it a “cancer” that must be eradicated without hesitation.
Bilawal met with Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro, Provincial Minister for Anti-Corruption Muhammad Bakhsh Khan Mahar, and other officials at Bilawal House in Karachi on Tuesday.
According to the party’s statement, Nisar Khuhro briefed the PPP chairman on the political and organisational situation in Sindh and provided details on the performance of various institutions after assuming the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee in the Sindh Assembly. Bilawal instructed Khuhro to exert his best efforts to enhance the performance of the institutions under his oversight.
Minister for Anti-Corruption, Sports, and Agriculture, Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Khan Mahar, also briefed Bilawal on the government’s initiatives to promote sports and protect farmers in the province. He provided a detailed briefing on the measures taken by the Sindh government to combat corruption. “Corruption is a cancer,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated, urging the government to avoid any hesitation in taking extreme measures to eliminate it.
Earlier, Pakistan’s former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday lashed out at the top judiciary for ‘resurrecting’ jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party through a decision about its iconic electoral symbol of cricket bat.
The Supreme Court in a controversial judgment had upheld a verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan that snatched the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s election symbol just before the February 8 general elections over its failure to hold the intra-party elections as per its laws.
Bilawal in a speech in the National Assembly suggested that the judgment helped the PTI to rally support by banking on the sympathy vote. “This verdict resurrected a dead political party after which it started mobilising,” he said.
The 35-year-old scion of the powerful Bhutto-Zardari family added that the decision had political implications and benefitted the PTI close to the February 8 general elections.
He also alleged that the judiciary was responsible for the current crises regarding the allocation of reserved seats following another judgment by the top court which declared that the PTI was a legitimate political party to accommodate independent candidates and also get a share in the reserved seats.
“No one sitting in this House is responsible for the current crisis in the country. Only the court was and is the reason for the crisis,” Bilawal, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said