Federal leaders criticise PPP chaiman Bilawal Bhutto's US visit
Jul 12, 2021
Rawalpindi [Pakistan], July 12 : Several leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in Pakistan have criticized the 10 day US visit of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto, who has arrived in New York on Monday.
Hitting out at PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's US visit, Pakistan minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would complete its tenure, "no matter how many times Bhutto visits the US."
"Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto can go to America for as many times as he wishes to," said the federal minister adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan will complete his tenure of five years regardless of Bilawal's "attempts" at impeding it.
Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari arrived in New York on Monday to kickstart his seven-day trip to the US, which has triggered criticism and accusations from the federal government.
The PPP leader is on a seven-day 'private' tour of the US. Ever since the party announced the visit, the government has criticised Bhutto, with Prime Minister's aide Shahbaz Gill going so far as to say that Bhutto was seeking a deal from the US.
The News International reported that during a press conference earlier this month, Imran Khan's special assistant on Political Communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill, had accused Bhutto of seeking a deal with the US through his upcoming visit.
Gill had claimed Bilawal is "going to take his CV (curriculum vitae) to Washington in a bid to get a job".
"After reaching America, Bilawal will urge [the US government] to help him come into power, saying he is ready to do whatever they ask of him," he had said.
Gill had said that the Pakistan government "will never allow Bilawal to succeed" in his plans. "We will not let such a deal be struck," the premier's aide had said.
He had said that during former president (retired) Gen Pervez Musharraf's tenure, 13 drone attacks were carried out in Pakistan, while during PPP's regime, the country witnessed a whopping 340 attacks.
Meanwhile, the PPP responded back to Gill's statements, accusing the "puppet government" of being worried about Bhutto's visit for no reason, reported The News International further.
"Fawad Chaudhry, Shahbaz Gill and Farrukh Habib are also worried that their leader Imran Khan cannot go to the US without diplomatic immunity because of pending cases in the USA's courts," PPP Parliamentarians' Secretary Shazia Marri had said in response to Gill's press conference.
Marri had said Bhutto had hope in the strength in the people of Pakistan and it has been proven how General Elections 2018 were stolen from the PPP by creating obstacles in the party's path.