Bilawal regrets mention of generals in speeches | The Express Tribune

With the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) all set to stage a rally to mark the 13th anniversary of Karsaz blasts on Sunday (today), Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said that his party was not in the favour of taking names of army generals at gatherings as it could affect their morale, regretting the mentioning of their names in both the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Friday gathering and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speeches.

Bilawal visited Bagh-e-Jinnah – the venue for hosting the PDM’s second power show on Sunday (today) – where he received a briefing from Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and provincial minister Saeed Ghani on the arrangements for the rally.

“Imran Khan says in every speech that ‘we are on the same page’ and ‘institutions are with me’,” Bilawal told reporters.

“Army’s job is to protect the borders. It is regrettable that generals are mentioned in the gatherings of the opposition and the prime minister’s speeches,” he added.

“When we mention the establishment, we know it is part of history. We had either dictatorship or controlled democracy. We do not want their [military’s] morale to go down. We want a real and complete democracy. We do not look at umpire’s finger but we look to the people’s signal.”

Bilawal’s media talk came hours after the PDM’s overnight maiden power show in Gujranwala, where the opposition leaders spoke against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), while former prime minister Nawaz Sharif gave a hard-hitting speech against the establishment.

At Bagh-e-Jinnah, Chief Minister Murad said that Sharif’s statement was his own point of view, adding that it was correct to some extent. “I do not agree with the statement of Sharif completely, but his statement is correct to some extent,” he said.

On the government’s reaction to the rally, Murad said that if the Gujranwala rally was a failure, why they [the federal government] were worried. “I invite [Information Minister] Shibli Faraz to come to Karachi and see for himself the opposition gathering,” he said.

The CM said that the PPP holds a gathering every year on the anniversary of October 18, 2007 Karsaz bombing’s martyrs but this year, the leadership of the PDM would also grace the occasion. He added that the government had made the life of people miserable, who would record their protest at the rally.