Pakistan Opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for his “complete failure” on handling the Kashmir issue, asserting that earlier Pakistan’s policy was how to take Srinagar from India, but now the concern is how to save Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK.
Addressing mediapersons in Rawalpindi on Monday, Bilawal, the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said Pakistan “lost Kashmir” due to the incompetency of the Khan government.
“Earlier, Pakistan’s policy used to be how to take Srinagar from India. However, now due to the failure of Imran Khan government, the position is how we can save Muzafarabad,” the Pakistan Peoples Party chairman said.
Bilawal said Prime Minister Khan knew that scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was in BJP’s election manifesto, but he did not take any action on this earlier.
“This is a strategic blunder. The government does not have any excuse,” he told reporters outside the Adiala Jail, where his father and former president Asif Ali Zardari is lodged in connection with a corruption case.
“When it comes to Opposition, Khan projects himself as lion, but in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi he is timid and becomes scaredy-cat,” he added.
He said no other Pakistani government has failed so badly as the Khan government has.
Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories, evoking strong reactions from Pakistan.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.