report in The News, March 6th, 2023
KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that it would be difficult for his party to retain ministries in the Centre if the federal government did not honour its commitments to the Sindh government and PPP.

The PPP chairman gave the warning to this effect on Sunday while speaking as the chief guest at a programme here at the CM House to launch financial assistance programme of the Sindh government for the flood-hit small farmers.

Bilawal lamented that the federal government was yet to fulfill its commitments to the relief and rehabilitation of flood victims of last year in the country. He said the Centre, while following in the footsteps of the Sindh government, should fulfill at the earliest its promises to rehabilitate the flood victims.

He mentioned that the federal government was yet to pay Rs4.7 billion as its promised share to help out the flood victims. He said that the same issue would be raised in the federal cabinet and the National Assembly.

The PPP chairman said that a positive message would be sent if the federal government comes forward to support the flood victims on a priority basis. “People will hold us accountable if the federal government doesn’t fulfill its commitments to the flood victims,” he said.

Terming the first-ever digital census in the country a ‘flawed exercise’, the foreign minister said that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had grave concerns over the ongoing census.

“We had objected to the results of the 2018 census,” he said, adding that there was a massive difference in the results of the Housing Census in Sindh compared to the other provinces.

The PPP leader said that they had demanded recounting of 10 percent of the housing census. He told the audience that the PPP could only support a genuine census drive conducted on a scientific basis in the country. They couldn’t support the latest census drive in its present form.

The PPP chairman said that he would talk with the relevant federal authorities to convey these concerns on the latest census campaign.

Bilawal said that though he was a member of the federal cabinet, he only came to know about the new feature of the latest census “Online self-enumeration” when its deadline was extended by the government. He said that if being a federal minister he wasn’t aware of this aspect of the census, then one could imagine how the general public would be aware of this issue.

“If the federal government does not look at the concerns of the chief minister and Sindh government and doesn’t address them, then Sindh will not support the federal government in this exercise. If they want to go on their own, count their own way and want to impose everything of their own, then let them do it themselves,” the PPP chairman said.

He clarified, “If polls in one or two provinces will take place based on a different census, and in other provinces the elections will be held based on a flawed digital census, then this will not be acceptable to the PPP.”

He said that his political party had to compete with the issues of economic crisis and unemployment in the country and the PPP had no competition with any selected political party. The media and other institutions should give full attention to resolving the economic crisis in the country.

Without naming the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, he said that a cowardly politician was acting like a mouse while hiding in his Zaman Park residence to avoid arrest. He lamented that politicians like Imran Khan were the cause behind the current state of division and animosity prevalent in politics.

Bilawal acknowledged that an unprecedented hike in the prices of essential commodities had emerged as the biggest issue in the country and it was high time that such genuine issues of the people should be resolved. He said the country had been facing unprecedented challenges related to security and economic issues and these problems should be sorted out without any delay.

Bilawal told the audience that the Sindh government of PPP had been helping out the small farmers in the province as floods of last year had massively damaged the farmlands. He said the flood catastrophe had proved lethal to the agriculture economy.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also warned he would reject the results of the ongoing census drive if their reservations were not removed by the federal authorities concerned.

He complained that his government had not been informed about the necessary affairs related to the census. He said the Sindh government should get the necessary census data after the enumeration of the population in the province.

He appealed to the people in the province to actively take part in the census and make sure that their data was being accurately counted by the enumerators.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1046894-bilawal-warns-of-leaving-ministries