As the nation is gearing up for next year’s general election, former foreign minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has intensified his electioneering by insisting that he isn’t aware of “Gate No 4 politics” and that he solely relies on the people to bring his party into power.
In his address to a workers’ convention in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Shangla district on Thursday, said: “On the one hand there is politics of divide, and on the other, economic conditions are getting worse”.
“We don’t know the politics of abuse and TikTok. We don’t know the politics of Gate No 4. I trust the people; I will not look anywhere else; I will not ask for help from anyone, but only the people.”
Bilawal claimed that he is the only politician whose “hands are clean” and that there is no other politician in any other political party who has the same clean slate as him.
With the February 8, 2024, elections a few months away, parties are holding rallies and meetings, and bringing prominent politicians to their hold to solidify their positions.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — a former ally of the PPP and now its foe seemingly — has presented Nawaz Sharif as their premiership candidate, while the PPP has insisted that Bilawal will be their choice for the top slot.
Although Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal’s father, said in a recent interview that his son was “inexperienced”, the party backed the chairman as its choice for the prime minister’s position — come what may.
“There is no other political party or politician whose hands are clean. I have been foreign minister for 18 months and my hands are clean. I want to fill your pocket instead of filling mine. I promise you in five years, your salary will double.”
Bilawal further said that the country was in “trouble” and asked the nation to support him in a bid to “change the fate of Pakistan”.
“I have observed all the politicians closely, they only rely on old politics: the politics of revenge. We have to bury such politics,” the scion of the Bhutto family added.
Bilawal, the country’s youngest foreign minister, said his battle was not with “old politicians”, but poverty, unemployment, and inflation. “The PPP has taken Pakistan out of crises before [and we plan on doing it again].”
