We have shown we keep our promises’: Bilawal marks completion of 1m flood homes

KARACHI, Nov 10 (APP): Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, addressing a ceremony marking the completion of one million houses in the first phase of the Sindh government’s flagship project to build 2.1 million homes for victims of the 2022 floods, said, “We have shown that we keep our promises.”
The Chairman of PPP stressed that to confront the “economic disaster” and provide relief to the people, the country’s politics must be reset.
Addressing the ceremony, he said that to mark historic milestone, that critics should learn from the PPP how to serve the people rather than criticise without cause.
Citing a briefing by the SPHF, he said the people’s government of Sindh had set a world record by building one million of the planned 2.1 million homes, surpassing the previous record held by the government of Nepal, which built 700,000. “So the Sindh government has built one million homes so far, and Allah willing, once this project is complete, we will build two million more,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that when the two-million-home project was launched, the country was dealing with the devastation of a massive natural disaster, and that today, as the project passes an important milestone, the whole world,
Pakistan included, is caught in an “economic disaster”. He said the project is also giving the poor of Sindh “a measure of economic security” amid the present economic crisis, record inflation, poverty and unemployment.
He said that during this economic crisis, people across the country are looking to political parties and governments. They are not looking to see how they will be set against one another or how the politics of hatred and division will be spread, he said; they are looking to see who stands with them in this crisis.
He said that, at the very least, he could tell the people of Sindh that every step the provincial government takes is aimed at delivering relief to the public and lightening the economic burden on their shoulders.
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that “roti, kapra aur makan” (bread, clothing and shelter) is the PPP’s manifesto, and that it was upheld even in building homes for flood-hit families. He said that one million livelihoods were created in the course of building one million homes. He noted that this is not only a housing project but also a land transfer project.
“Those who had no home were given a durable house, and those who had no ownership rights to their land were given those rights,” he said.
He said some politicians believe the country will progress by making the rich and business classes richer.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari praised Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah for his outstanding performance on the project to build homes for two million flood-affected families. He said that when the work began, many people did not believe it could be done. Recalling the start of the floods in 2022, he said he was in Larkana at the time, and the rain turned into a severe flood before his eyes. “It felt as though I was passing over the sea,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that as foreign minister he had arranged financing for rebuilding victims’ homes in flood-affected areas of all four provinces, including Sindh.
He said, “We are criticised, our character is attacked, and Sindh is attacked the most. That is because everyone knows that Sindh does more than any other province to defend not only its own rights but the rights of all provinces, and that is why you are attacked the most,” he said. He declared that those who criticise without cause link every issue to the NFC, devolution and the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which is contrary to the facts.
He said that Sindh has faced great hardship because of repeated floods and torrential rains, including in the education sector.
He pointed out that 50 percent of Sindh’s schools were badly affected in the last flood. The other provinces have not faced such difficulties, he said. “I pray that they see for themselves. So those who criticise us should learn from us how to serve the people.” Continuing, he asked whether any other division of the country could face such a situation alone, as Sindh has faced floods and other hardships again and again. He said that in the recent past there was even a prime minister who, instead of helping flood-hit Sindh, said, “Sindh is not ours anyway.” “But Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, at least, did not let us feel that,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stressed that to meet the economic crisis under way in Pakistan and around the world, the country’s politics must indeed be reset. But through this reset, political parties will have to work together rather than fight one another, he said.
The people of Pakistan do not want to hear today about how we should fight each other, he stressed.
Until we face the economic crisis together, he said, we will not be able to save our people from this hardship. Until such conditions emerge at the national level, he said, the people’s government of Sindh will keep taking steps, within its limited resources, such as building homes for the homeless and making landless women the owners of land.
The ceremony was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, provincial ministers, members of the assembly, and diplomatic, social and business figures.