Speaking at two different events in Mirpur district in the first leg of his three-day tour to AJK to kick-start his party’s election campaign, he went on to allege that PM Khan’s government was also contemplating selling out the country's nuclear programme.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari who was accompanied by senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira started his tour from Dhan Galli village at the border of Punjab and AJK where he was received by party’s regional president Chaudhry Latif Akbar, leader of the opposition in AJK assembly Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin and scores of other PPP leaders and activists.
From Dhaan Galli his rally arrived at Dadyal where he addressed a big gathering to canvass for Chaudhry Afsar Shahid, PPP’s candidate from LA-1, Mirpur-I. En-route the neighbouring Kotli district, Mr Bhutto-Zardari addressed another gathering at Plaak village in LA-2, Mirpur-II from where Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, son of former AJK premier Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, has been given party ticket.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari maintained that each AJK visit filled him with joy “because there was not just a political bondage between the PPP and the people of Kashmir but also a historical bondage."
“We are with each other for three generations and will remain so for [many more] generations,” he said.
He claimed that Kashmiris had written history by siding with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Continuing, he said, when they sided with President Asif Ali Zardari, they had historical development in AJK.
“Now the youth in Azad Kashmir and occupied Kashmir are going to begin a new journey,” he said and added: “If in occupied Kashmir they are doing jihad against Modi, Hindutva and barbarity of the RSS; here […] in AJK the youth as well as the elderly are doing a jihad against dearness and unemployment by Imran Khan.”
“If they are facing the bullets and blasts by Modi here you are experiencing costliness; you cannot buy medicines and get treated, you cannot find jobs for yourselves. You too are launching your jihad and struggle against this cruel puppet government.”
Referring to two famous quotes of his grandfather and mother about Kashmir and Kashmiris, he regretted that in response to Modi government’s Aug 5, 2019 move, Prime Minister Imran Khan had expressed helplessness by saying what could he do.
“He [PM Khan] did not have even an answer to this historic cruelty, villainy and injustice by Modi.”
Mr Bhutto-Zardari said while Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had vowed to fight for 1000 years for Kashmir, PM Khan announced to hold protest demonstrations along the roads on each Friday.
“However, he could not make people stand for you even for one week. When Zulfikar Ali would give a strike call, not just AJK the whole of occupied Kashmir would shut down. But what Imran Khan did was just to rename Kashmir Highway as Srinagar Highway.”
The PPP chairman asked the gathering to hold “the most incompetent prime minister” accountable and answerable for the injustice he had done to AJK, for the dearness and the unemployment as well as what he had done with regard to occupied Kashmir.
“You have to make it loud and clear to the world that whatever this puppet says, we will never compromise the rights of Kashmiris like that of Imran Khan.”
Speaking of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, he said the persons who respectively gave the gift of nuclear and missile technologies to the nation were declared as ‘security risk.’
“But this puppet has not only sold out Kashmir, he is now also out to sell out the nuclear programme… The people of [Azad] Kashmir will reject this puppet in elections and declare him as a security risk,” he said.
He asked people to support him the way they had supported Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto and drive out PTI from AJK to pave the way for PPP's victory with a thumping majority.
“First we will elect our prime minister in Azad Kashmir and then we will elect a prime minister in Pakistan – a prime minister who will not sell out Kashmir and who will resolve all of your issues,” he said.
Later the PPP chairman drove to Kotli district where he offered condolences to the family of party’s stalwart Muhammad Matloob Inqilabi in Dhanna village in LA 13, Kotli-VI. Mr Inqilabi had died in November last year due to a head injury and PPP has fielded his son Waleed Inqilabi from this constituency.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari is scheduled to address a big public meeting in Kotli city on Saturday.
Tariq Naqash
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