BBZ asks ECP to decide on PTI’s Foreign Funding

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will have to answer the questions about alleged funding of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) from India and Israel.He was speaking at a public meeting organised here on Tuesday to celebrate the victory of PPP candidate Syed Ameer Ali Shah in Monday’s by-election for PS-52 Umerkot-II.

He pointed out that democratic forces of the country were protesting outside the ECP office today to seek its answer to the question being raised since 2014.“To date, the ECP has not been able to give an answer,” he said, and asked the commission to explain why the matter had not been taken up over the years.He insisted that the ECP should disqualify PTI chief Imran Khan. “If this was not done now, the people of Umerkot will march to Islamabad to forcibly oust him,” he said

He recalled that his mother and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had been labelled ‘security risk’ on certain allegations but now “those who have brought PTI into power by funding it from foreign countries must be exposed and the selected and sponsored PTI government must be disqualified”. Bilawal Bhutto thanked the people of Umerkot for using their right to vote for the “right person”.He claimed that farmers and workers had lost their lives “in the tsunami of inflation”, and alleged that the person who had been raising a hue and cry over alleged corruption himself turned out to be corrupt. “His entire party turned out to be corrupt,” he added.

The PPP chairman said that the people of Umerkot had sent a clear message to Islamabad by voting for PPP in the by-election and by rejecting the “selected one”.He said that the people of Umerkot also adequately responded to the “political orphans the way they deserved as they were with [General Pervez] Musharraf yesterday and are with Imran Khan today”.Paying homage to the late MPA, Syed Ali Mardan Shah, Bhutto-Zardari said that he had always stood by the PPP and supported the party leadership. He said he was sure that Syed Ameer Ali Shah, like his late father, would always support and help the people of Umerkot.

Earlier, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah addressing the event said that people of Umerkot had only outright rejected their opponents, bhy voting for Syed Ameer Ali Shah during the by-polls on Monday but also ‘blackned’ the faces of those, who were daydreaming to defeat the party candidate. ” Over 60 per cent turnout during the by-polls has been unprecedented and people overwhelmingly voted for our candidate” he added and said that people of Malir, Sanghar and Tharparkar would also reject such elements, who are contesting by-elections in those districts.

Murad Shah said that people of Umerkot by voting to Mr Shah had again reposed their trust in PPP candidate and hoped that MPA-elect would leave stone unturned to deliver to the people of his constituency like his late father. Sindh culture minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah speaking on the occasion said that the goons sent by their opponents during the polls badly manhandled and tortured their supports including women and he tried to seek the permission from party chairman to allow them to teach a lesson to such ‘miscreants’ so their cries and screams could be heard by those sitting in Islamabad.

The former Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Syed Ameer Ali Shah and other PPP leaders and lawmakers also spoke on the occasion and paid their tributes to late Syed Muradan Ali Shah.