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| Bilawal Bhutto Zardari speaking a large gathering in Skardu |
Skardu: The PPP chief said the PTI government’s slogan of
change started with a Rs41 billion cut in Gilgit-Baltistan development budget
and a further reduction in subsidies on wheat.
“Roti is being sold for Rs10 and naan for Rs15. This is Naya
Pakistan. The PPP will halt the ‘path of annihilation’,” he vowed.
He said that before coming to power, Prime Minister Imran Khan
used to say that he would commit suicide rather than seeking loans from
international donors, but now he was celebrating getting loans. “The PTI
government has taken over 100 U-turns even before completion of first 100 days
of its tenure. We would not let Pakistan become a ‘laboratory’,” he said.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the government which came to power by
“stealing votes” was displaying sheer stubbornness and a “dark era” had been
imposed on the masses. He said the PPP would provide political and
constitutional rights to Gilgit-Baltistan after coming to power.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who arrived in Gilgit on Saturday on a five-day
visit to GB, said the people of this region had defeated the Dogra Raj,
liberated themselves and annexed the region with Pakistan unconditionally. The
GB people, he added, had the courage higher than the Himalaya and strong like
the Hindu Kush — a formidable mountain range.
He regretted that after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the
people of GB had been deprived of their fundamental rights. After liberation
from the Dogra Raj, the GB people had been made target of tyranny and
oppression by various powers, he said, adding that the region had been kept
under darkness of the Frontier Crime Regulations-like black law till 1972.
“My family has special relations and love with the GB people for
three generations. After my grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, mother Benazir
Bhutto and father Asif Ali Zardari, now I have come here fulfilling this love,”
he said.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said PPP founder Zulfikar Bhutto was the first
person to challenge the authority of local rulers (Rajas) in 1972, abolish the
FCR, get the locals free from paying taxes to Rajas and introduce
administrative and judicial reforms. Zulfikar Bhutto had also empowered the
local people, initiated Karakoram highway project, introduced wheat subsidies
for the locals, he said, adding that carrying on this agenda in 1994, former
prime minister Benazir Bhutto had introduced new judicial and administrative
reforms under the Legal Frame Work Order, 1994.
The PPP chairman said that when Benazir Bhutto had arrived in
Pakistan after exile in 2007, she promised to empower the GB people. That
promise, he added, was fulfilled by Asif Ali Zardari as president in 2009 in
the shape of GB Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009.
Under the presidential order, he said, the GB people got their
identity and the name of Northern Areas had been replaced with
Gilgit-Baltistan. Under the order, he said, the GB people had been granted
administrative provincial set-up and empowered to elect their own
representatives and chief minister.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said GB was gateway of the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor, but regretted that the rights and share of local people had
been ignored in the mega project. He promised that the PPP would give
constitutional and fundamental rights to the GB people after coming to power.
The PPP would also ensure local people’s royalty in Diamer-Bhasha dam and
oppose any move to shift the Sost dry port to other area, he said, adding that
the right of local ownership of lands would be ensured.
He lashed out at the previous PML-N government in Islamabad and
the incumbent government in GB for “attacks on GB’s autonomy” and alleged that
the PML-N’s GB chief minister was trying to roll back the reforms carried out
by the PPP. He accused the chief minister of appointing the activists of banned
religious organisations in the GB police and trying to deprive the locals of
their lands. He said the power to issue NOC to foreigners had been snatched
from the GB government which damaged the tourism industry in the region.
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