Bilawal takes veiled jibe at Nawaz, calls for giving chance to 'youth'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took a veiled jibe at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif over his ‘age’ asking him to give a chance to the youth, geo News reported on Saturday.

This comes as the major political parties are gearing up for the general elections in Pakistan in February next year.

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.

Speaking at a workers’ convention in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar, 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 minister took a veiled jibe at Nawaz Sharif, saying that “people must pave the 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 three times”.

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, according to Geo News.

However, this is not the first time the PPP chairman has taken a jibe against the PML-N and Nawaz Sharif.

Earlier on Friday, during a workers’ convention in KP’s Mardan, the former FM lamented on traditional politics terming it as the country’s worst enemy and stressed the need to embark on “new politics”, The News International reported.

“Those who claimed to be representing the ‘sanctity of vote’ have shown their true colours and have become Pakistan’s “mehengai [inflation] league” instead,” Zardari said.

He added, “They have no respect for the [public’s] ‘vote’ […] neither do they know about serving the people nor how to govern [the country]”.

Bilawal, without taking any names, also took a jibe at the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), saying: “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, according to Geo News.

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 News International reported.

“The PPP has a better chance today [in February 8, 2024 polls] which it didn’t have back in 2013 and 2018 elections,” he added.