Karachi, March 05, 2023 (PPI-OT): Chairman Pakistan People’s Party and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the federal government will have to fulfill its promises made to the flood victims, otherwise it will be difficult for us to keep the ministries.
Addressing a function at the Chief Minister’s House regarding the distribution of relief money for the purchase of seeds among the flood-affected farmers, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that every section is in distress due to the economic crisis, but the people associated with agriculture sector are the worst affected.
He said that on the one hand, the agricultural sector has been hit by a natural disaster, on the other hand, during the last 10 years, federal governments have taken no steps toward the betterment of this sector.
He pointed out that before President Asif Ali Zardari’s presidency, Pakistan had to import wheat, rice, and sugar, but the PPP government increased the production of the aforementioned commodities in a short period of one year. Sadly, after President Zardari’s departure, these policies were not maintained.
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP stands with flood victims and farmers, and that is why Sindh was the first province, which fixed the support price of wheat at Rs 4,000 per maunds and the provincial government was helping small farmers through the Benazir Income Support Program. “It is sad to say that the promises made by the federal government to help the flood victims have not yet been fulfilled while the Sindh government has given Rs 1.39 billion from its budget to help the farmers, the federal government will have to fulfill its promise of Rs 4.7 billion for the purpose,” he added.
He further said that if the federal government or the Prime Minister has made any promise regarding the flood victims, it will have to be fulfilled and it should keep the flood victims in their top priorities. He said that if the promises to the flood victims were not fulfilled, it would be very difficult for us to have ministries. “I hope that our complaint will be remedied,” he said.
The PPP Chairman said that the media and others are not focusing on the flood victims at the moment, but the his Party, its officials and workers should come forward to help the flood victims. “Local organizations of the PPP should play the role of facilitator in helping flood victims,” he added. He said that two programs for the construction of houses for flood victims and seeds for farmers were run for flood victims.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, “We believe that the biggest problem of the people is inflation, unemployment and economic problems,” he said adding that the war on the media is going on every day, but the real problem of the people of Pakistan is economic problems, and we will continue to do what we can do to solve it.
He further said that the solution to the problems facing Pakistan is with the PPP and Bhuttoism. “PPP is an ideological party, it is not against any other party but against inflation, unemployment and poverty. We have always solved the problems of the people and remained the voice of common man. Our priorities are the common man.”
He said that the media’s focus is not on challenges like public problems and terrorism but what they show every day is a political rat, who is hiding under the bed for fear of arrest and stressed that the attention of all of us, including the people, the media and the institutions, should be towards the problems of Pakistan.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed reservations over the ongoing digital census in the country and said that the PPP had raised objections from the beginning of the census of 2017. “We raised these objections on the basis of a survey report by the UNDP during this period,” he said. He said that there was a very clear difference between the UNDP survey on the number of houses in Sindh and the 2017 census data. “There was a difference in such figures in some areas of Balochistan and FATA. We raised this objection at the same time and said that we had acknowledged this census only on the condition that only 5 % of census data would be revisited,” he added.
He said that the PPP has been constantly raising these reservations while today when the elections are in the fore, it was announced that there would be a digital census. “The feedback we have received regarding this census at this time, the PPP, as well as the people, have reservations,” he added.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that if the census is to be done in the same way, then it is not acceptable as in some provinces elections will be held after the digital census. He made it clear that the PPP will support a scientific and real census and won’t support such a faulty census. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Federal Minister and Chairperson BISP Shazia Atta Marri, and Advisor to Chief Minister for Agriculture Manzoor Wassan also spoke on the occasion.
For more information, contact:
PPP Media Cell (Sindh)
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)
Peoples Secretariat Shikarpur Colony,
Behind Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Karachi, Pakistan
Cell: +92-305-3370383
Email: contact@ppp-tu.com
Website: https://www.ppp.org.pk