RAWALAKOT: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has equally criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over recent killings and the unrest in Srinagar and other parts of the disputed Kashmiri state, during his address at the election campaign here in Azad Jammu Kashmir.
Addressing the election gathering, he accused Prime Minister Nawaz of silently supporting atrocities committed by the Indian government in the disputed Kashmiri state. “(Prime Minister) Modi is ‘friend’ of Mian Sahib (PM Nawaz) and his (Indian) government committed worst atrocities in occupied Jammu Kashmir,” he said.
“He (Nawaz) issued a condemnation statement four days after 35 innocent Kashmiris were brutally killed by the Indian forces,” he said, without having knowledge of clear statements of the prime minister, his cabinet members, and ambassadors in different countries (including Dr Maleeha Lodhi) along with briefing and interviews of Foreign Office and Foreign Affairs adviser.
Bilawal said that if the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government managed to win the upcoming elections for Azad Jammu Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly, the message would go abroad that the Kashmiri people have endorsed Nawaz Sharif’s friendship with Narendra Modi. He called upon the UN and the United Kingdom to fulfill their promises they made that a right to self-determination would be given to Kashmiri people.
Recounting achievements of the PPP government in Azad Jammu Kashmir, Bilawal said that there was only one university before the party’s government in the state and now there were six universities. He said that Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were not leaders but politicians who only protect their own interests. “The end of PML-N government would start from Rawalakot,” he added.
The local PPP leadership had made arrangements for the election rally. Regional elections in the state are scheduled to be held on July 21. All three major parties of Pakistan as well as regional heavyweight Muslim Conference and independents are contesting the elections in the region, which is presently being ruled by the PPP.
Bilawal will also address an election rally in Muzaffarabad, the capital city, on Saturday. The Legislative Assembly consists of 41 elected members and eight co-opted consisting of five women, one religious scholar, one technocrat or other professional and one Kashmiri expat. The assembly then elects the prime minister as well.
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