In veiled jibe at Nawaz, Bilawal calls for giving youth a chance to lead country

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari speaking at a workers' convention at Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on November 18, 2023. — YouTube/Geo News

As political parties across Pakistan are gearing up for upcoming general elections, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called for giving a chance to the youth of the country to take the reins of the country instead of "making the same person prime minister of the country for the fourth time", Geo news reported Saturday.

Speaking at a workers' convention in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's capital Peshawar as the party gears up for upcoming elections scheduled to take place on February 8 next year, the former foreign minister said that his party intends to bring in "new politics" as it is "not stuck in the past".

Without taking any names, the former foreign minister took a veiled jibe at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, saying that the people must pave way for the younger generation to lead the country and not elect someone as the country's premier who has served as the chief executive for three-time.

Nawaz — who returned to Pakistan after ending a four-year self-imposed exile in October — faces an uncertain future with regard to his possible participation in elections due to legal issues — as he had been disqualified from holding public office.

This is not the first time the PPP chairman has taken a jibe against the PML-N and the party's possible prime ministerial candidate Nawaz. A day earlier, while addressing a workers' convention in KP's Mardan, the former foreign minister lamented on traditional politics terming it as the country's worst enemy and stressed the need to embark on "new politics".

"Those who claimed to be representing the 'sanctity of vote' have shown their true colours and have become Pakistan's "mehengai [inflation] league" instead."

"They have no respect for the [public's] 'vote' [...] neither do they know about serving the people nor how to govern [the country]," Bilawal said.

Bilawal, without taking any names, also took a jibe at the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), saying: "He also said that those who claimed to be representative of change instead turned out to be representative of disaster."

"Taking 'U-turns' is a sign of a coward, not a leader," he said while referring to Khan's infamous justification for changing political stances.

Responding to the criticism of the PPP's performance as part of the PML-N-led Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, the PPP chief said that he is proud of his 16-month performance and is willing to contest the polls on his performance as the foreign minister.

"The PPP has a better chance today [in February 8, 2024 polls] which it didn't have back in 2013 and 2018 elections," he said.