Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party cheers for his supporters during an election campaign rally, in Bhalwal, Pakistan, on Jan. 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Named ‘Chuno Nai Soch Ko’ (choose new thinking), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on January 27 launched its manifesto claiming it is the “only party” with a plan to combat poverty, unemployment & inflation in the cash-strapped country.
The PPP promised to double the real incomes of wage earners by ensuring growth, investments and job creation as a real-time priority. “It said that the minimum wage will be increased in real terms by 8% every year to take it to the living wage,” Geo News reported, quoting the manifesto.
The manifesto mainly focuses on dealing with poverty and providing facilities to the working and lower class and outlines the healthcare facilities, education, food security and women’s empowerment, it said.
Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari shared the manifesto from his official X handle and directed his followers to visit a website to access the document. “The PPP is the only party with a plan to combat poverty, unemployment & inflation,” Mr. Bilawal wrote in his post on X.
The manifesto said that the PPP has always seen housing as a right, hence, it will provide homeownership for the most vulnerable including the poor, landless, and working classes, Geo News said.
The Bilawal-led party will also launch the ‘Bhook Mitao Programme’ (Eradicate Hunger Programme) which will ensure food security and will issue labour cards for the country’s labour class, through which “the working class can pay their children’s school fees, avail health insurance and obtain old age benefits.”
The PPP document also had announcements for women, youth, farmers (subsidy for urea, crop insurance etc.) and small loans to poor women through the Waseela-e-Haq programme.
As part of the 10-point agenda before releasing the manifesto, it had also promised free solar energy of 300 units for the poor; green energy parks for every district and free health for all across Pakistan among other things.
