THAR: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday accused a “party of political orphans” of bringing what he described as “Zionist politics” to Sindh, saying such efforts would not be allowed to succeed.
Speaking at the inauguration of Thar Coal Phase III in Thar, Bilawal said the success of students from Tharparkar in the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) should be a source of pride for the entire country.
He was responding to reservations expressed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) over the MDCAT results, according to which no candidate from Karachi Division secured a place among the province’s top 20.
Instead of celebrating the performance of students from Tharparkar and other less-developed districts, Bilawal said, a “party of political orphans” had resorted to what he called the “politics of hatred and division”.
“You must have heard about Israel and Palestine, but they want to introduce this kind of politics to Sindh,” Bilawal said, adding that such efforts would never succeed.
He said that if students from Tharparkar or other underdeveloped areas were topping examinations, it should be considered a matter of pride.
According to results released by Sukkur IBA Testing Services, students from smaller and less-developed districts of Sindh secured top positions in the MDCAT examination.
MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar, however, questioned the transparency of the results and alleged that corruption was widespread in Sindh.
“How is it possible that MDCAT has remained untouched by the PPP?” Sattar asked.
‘Creation of new provinces does not make sense’
Bilawal also rejected the argument for creating new provinces on the basis that the existing governance system had failed, saying he did not understand the logic behind such a proposal.
He questioned whether the same reasoning would mean handing Islamabad over to the people of Thar if the federal capital’s governance system failed.
The PPP chairman said Islamabad should be governed in the same way as Thar, pointing to the Thar Coal project as an example of what he described as the success of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
His remarks came amid an ongoing debate over Pakistan’s administrative structure, with coalition partners PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) holding differing views on the creation of new provinces or administrative units.
The debate gained momentum in July after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi described the governance system as having “collapsed” and called for structural reforms, including new administrative units with greater powers devolved to lower levels.
Naqvi later clarified that he was referring to the decline of the system over the past 80 years rather than criticising any particular government.
