Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Saturday called upon all gove
rnment allies to ‘quickly announce their
separation from the coalition if they wish to avoid committing treason’ against the country.
“Akhtar Mengal has played a positive role. Now there is no valid reason for him to stay with this gove
rnment,” he said, adding, “I hope he will stick to his decision.” He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s opposition to the 18th Amendment and the National Finance
Commission award to the pr
ovinces is now ‘plain for all to see’. “He is even against the 1973 Constitution,” he claimed, censuring the prime minister for speaking against the 18th Amendment and the NFC Award while on a visit to Sindh.
Bilawal said it is highly regrettable that the prime minister likened Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to a ‘dictator’. “I have been saying since the beginning, their true face has started to reveal itself,” he said. “For humanity’s sake, the premier should not have attacked the pr
ovince at a time when it is important for all stakeholders to unite in fight against coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
Bilawal said the gove
rnment will be hard pressed to find even one hospital at par with the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). He said if the gove
rnment is able to point out even one that comes up to its standards, the pr
ovince will surrender control of all three hospitals sought by the federal gove
rnment – the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH).
The PPP chairman said that the pr
ovince h
as witnessed a great economic fallout as a result of the pandemic and the upcoming budget has done great injustice with the amount allocated for hospitals. He claimed that the gove
rnment has announced a Rs70 billion budget but under the fine print, one will find that the amount is kept aside for a ‘slush fund’ to be used by PTI MNAs. “The gove
rnment has cut down the budgets of the pr
ovinces and expects us to fight the outbreak on our own,” he said.
Bilawal said Sindh, meanwhile, has placed great emphasis on health. “We have ramped up the number of our hospitals and testing facilities on a war footing,” he said, adding that the gove
rnment should take into account the recommendation by the WHO which calls for intermittent two-week lockdowns. “This fast crumbling wall will soon topple over. We need a serious prime minister,” the PPP chairman said.
Bilawal said the federal gove
rnment should have announced a health or Covid-19 package for every pr
ovince in the budget. He said the country has to increase its healthcare and testing capacity. “This support, however, was not provided to us,” he remarked, adding that the PTI should have allocated funds to transfer cash to people belonging to the working class and lower-middle class.
“Pakistan is facing the worst form of locust invasion in 25 years. We have known about it for a year now,” he said. “We appeal to them to take it seriously and help our farmers. This is a difficult situation,” he added.