Bilawal Kicks Off PPP Campaign with 10-Point ‘Welfare’ Agenda

Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, unveiled a 10-point agenda on Wednesday, February 8th, to begin his party’s election campaign.

Speaking at a party event in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on the sixteenth anniversary of his mother Benazir Bhutto’s passing, Bilawal outlined the party’s platform for the elections that will take place on February 8, 2024.

In the upcoming polls, Bilawal’s party is going to enforce a 10-point agenda that it promised would prioritize the welfare of the people. If elected, the party will implement these policies.

Below is a summary of the things that Bilawal’s party promised to do in the event that they won government.

• In five years, double the salaries
• 300 units of free solar energy for the underprivileged; green energy parks in every district
• Education for all: implementing initiatives to improve education
• Free medical care for everyone in Pakistan
• Three million homes for flood victims and the underprivileged
• Extend the reach of BISP by adding additional welfare programs
• A program similar to BSIP for farmers and the “Hari Card”
• Increased laborer support via the “Youth Card” for unemployed youth, “Youth Markaz,” and “Bhook Mitao Program” for unemployed youth

Apart from promising major policy reforms, the PPP chief, without taking any names, fired a fresh salvo against political opponent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Bilawal said that there are those who are relying on “others” for the upcoming polls, in the same manner they had done so in the past.

Reiterating his resolve to contest the elections regardless of the challenges, the PPP chairman said that he would face his political opponents in Lahore.

“I had told my team that I wanted to contest from Lahore. I’ll take the battle to Lahore. Let’s see what happens,” he said.

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“Is it Lahore’s destiny that the same person will be installed for the fourth time?” Bilawal said while taking a jibe at the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who is eying a record-fourth term as the country’s prime minister.

“Our paths are different with that of those we were in government for 16 months,” Bilawal said while referring to the PML-N-led Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government of which the PPP was a key part.

The PPP chief assured of giving “a befitting response” to their opponents in Lahore in the polls. 

On the issue of the party’s candidacy for the prime ministership, Bilawal said that he would seek the support of PPP and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) — headed by his father Asif Ali Zardari — for contesting the polls as the party’s candidate for the prime ministership.

His comments come after last month, when Zardari called his son “inexperienced” in an interview with Hamid Mir on Geo News’ “Capital Talk” program. Zardari also claimed that as the head of the PPPP, he had the power to give party tickets to candidates, including Bilawal. These remarks stoked rumors of a rift between the father and son.

Later, Bilawal was reassured by PPP Central Secretary Information Faisal Karim Kundi that the party still has Bilawal as its nominee for the chief executive position.