KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday asserted that Pakistan should not have skipped the US-hosted virtual summit on democracy, saying that the country wasn’t in position to deprive itself of any forum.
More than 100 nations, including Pakistan, were invited to the two-day virtual summit on Dec 9-10. China, the United States’ principal rival, was not invited.
Meanwhile, Pakistan did not attend the summit after earlier issuing a statement that said that Islamabad would like to engage with Washington on the issue of democracy “at an opportune time in the future”.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi today, the PPP Chairman said, “Even if an ally raises objections, we can raise their and our views at the forum but we should never cede space,” adding that in his opinion, this was a “mistake” at a foreign policy level.
Bilawal defends LG bill
The PPP chairman also defended the local government bill recently passed by the Sindh Assembly, saying that the newly-enacted laws were better than the ones in place in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.
Bilawal Bhutto said that while the opposition had the right to its own opinion, it did not have the right to “its own facts”. He claimed that the PPP was the only party that was in favour of devolution of powers.
He further said that the Punjab government had passed a “one-sided” law in this regard, while the Centre was trying to hold local government elections in Islamabad through an ordinance.
“The devolution of financial, political and administrative powers has not happened before in the country’s history,” he said, adding that it will improve the conditions of cities across the province.
He said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was the strongest civilian president in the country, yet he devolved more powers to the grass-root level. “He devolved the municipal and political powers to the local bodies’ representatives.”
The PPP chief also vowed to make province’s health and education departments exemplary. “We reject the health card of the federal government,” Bilawal said, “It is tantamount to a burglary on the government hospitals.”
