&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'Focus on real issues': Bilawal Bhutto slams Pakistan govt for spreading false stories about his personal life")
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has hit out at the Shehbaz Sharif government over the deaths of 14 newborns at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), while accusing those in power of allowing social media controversies to overshadow pressing issues facing the country. In a video message posted on social media, Bilawal dismissed viral reports that he had been engaged or was preparing to marry an Austrian royal, saying that social media had already ‘got me engaged, married’ despite no such development having taken place.
“I want to make it clear that neither has the match been finalised nor have I got engaged. Neither do I know any Princess Gloria,” Bilawal said, adding that any decision concerning his personal life would be announced by his family. Bilawal argued that the attention around his alleged marriage was being amplified to divert public attention from what he called the ‘real issues’ confronting Pakistan.
Watch the video here posted by Bilawal Bhutto
He then turned his focus to the PIMS tragedy, in which 14 newborns were killed in a fire that engulfed a neonatal ward in Islamabad on August 26. Bilawal took a sharp swipe at Mohsin Naqvi, without naming him directly, saying a minister who ‘wants to become the Gorbachev of Pakistan’ and divide the country into 30 parts could not even manage a single hospital.
His comments come after an interim inquiry into the PIMS fire found serious shortcomings in hospital safety and emergency preparedness. The investigation found that the neonatal ward had no fire alarms or sprinklers and that the hospital lacked adequate emergency procedures and training. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif subsequently suspended eight officials and ordered criminal proceedings against those identified by the inquiry.
Bilawal also criticised recent statements concerning the creation of new provinces in Pakistan. He said a minister from Lahore was telling the city’s businessmen to “make provinces and govern them”, arguing that such major constitutional and political questions could not be settled on the streets or at a business forum. The PPP chairman said the Sindh Assembly had already taken what he described as a courageous position on the issue and insisted that any discussion or decision regarding the creation of provinces must go through the appropriate constitutional and parliamentary process.
The provincial boundaries issue is particularly sensitive for the PPP, which governs Sindh and has strongly opposed proposals for a separate Karachi province. Bilawal said the Sindh Assembly would be the forum where the matter should be discussed and decided. Bilawal’s remarks came amid a wave of unverified reports linking him to Gloria von Habsburg, described in social media posts as a member of Austria’s former royal family. The claims gathered momentum after President Asif Ali Zardari travelled abroad on what the Presidency described as a private visit, with social media users linking the trip to alleged wedding plans. The PPP has rejected the reports as incorrect and unfounded.
