Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday urged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan to return to Parliament, warning that neither he nor his party will be able to “bear” the fallout if they fail to do so.
Addressing a gathering at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to mark the 15th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the PPP chief—who is also the foreign minister—said the only way for Khan to push through various reforms was in Parliament. “You are a stranger to the House,” he said to ousted prime minister. “Come back and play your role in Parliament. Let’s talk about reforms, whether it is the National Accountability Bureau or elections,” he said, stressing that the government would not otherwise be able to protect Khan from those who wished to “victimize” him.
“If he calls himself a politician and a democrat, he has to sit in Parliament and do his job,” he said, claiming that the reason for the PTI resorting to “politics of violence” and Khan addressing all public rallies via video-link was because the Army had announced an intent to become “apolitical.” Alleging that the PTI would keep trying to seek the military establishment’s support, he vowed that his PPP would ensure no unconstitutional steps are taken. “It is now time to ensure that they [establishment] fulfil their promise,” he added.
“Imran, in his rallies, has been using words that are tantamount to Article 6 and inciting the establishment to help him,” he continued, adding that neither he nor his party wanted their political opponents to endure what they had suffered. “But we also have to run the system, this cannot go on,” he warned.
PTI’s ouster
Bhutto-Zardari’s speech covered several political flashpoints, including Khan’s widely-debunked allegation of a “foreign conspiracy” triggering his ouster. “We sent Imran home through the Constitution,” he said, reiterating that this was the first time in Pakistan’s history that Parliament ousted a sitting prime minister. “The ‘conspiracy against the selected’ was not hatched behind closed doors, rather it happened on the streets and in the Parliament in plain sight,” he said.
The foreign minister also linked the recent resurgence of terrorism across Pakistan to Khan’s election as prime minister, accusing the PTI chief of trying to reason with terrorists while in government. “Benazir Bhutto lost her life fighting terrorism. We also initiated operations against terrorists, but who gave this cricketer [Imran] permission to negotiate with terrorists?” he asked. “Who freed terrorists from jails? Who allowed terrorists to live here and neither accept the Constitution nor lay down their weapons?” he continued, stressing that terrorism had returned after a cricketer was turned into a prime minister.
Nonetheless, he vowed, the ruling coalition would ensure terrorists were defeated.
Similarly, Bhutto-Zardari accused Khan of damaging Pakistan’s economy, leaving the country at the risk of default. He also lamented that when devastating floods struck Pakistan, causing damages of $30 billion, the PTI had refused to draw-down its political activities. Khan, he said, had continued to hold rallies and target the government when people were suffering at the hands of the climate catastrophe. Countries, he said, cannot run like this and urged the PTI chief “to act like a human being.”