Bilawal slams Nawaz for prioritising 'PM post' over country's progress

• Only PPP's politics aimed at country's well-being: Bilawal.
• Says Nawaz's PML-N pressuring caretaker govt to favour it.
• "It is raining today but arrows will rain on February 8 [polls]."

MIRPURKHAS: Political temperature mounts as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has fired a fresh salvo at his competitor in the race for the premiership, Nawaz Sharif, saying that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo prioritises personal gains over the country's interest.

"Mian sahib [Nawaz] does not care about the economy or the country's loss, he only wants to reach the [prime minister's] seat," the 35-year-old contender for the top slot in the upcoming polls said while addressing an election rally in Mirpurkhas on Saturday.

The Oxford-educated Bilawal is less than half the age of three-time premier Nawaz, 74, whom analysts consider the frontrunner in the February 8 general election.

With just a few days left in the contest, political parties hold their electoral campaigns in full swing, with the PPP chairman once again criticising Nawaz for running for the fourth time for the PM's post.

"Whatever his [Nawaz] lust for power leads to, he has to sit on the seat of authority," Bilawal said in his criticism of the former premier's political ambitions.

The politician went on to say that only the PPP's politics was aimed at the country's well-being while all the other political parties were doing politics of revenge.

Expressing confidence in support of the masses, Bilawal said that the PPP will give an answer to everyone on the polls day,"

"It is raining today but arrows [PPP electoral symbol] will rain on February 8," he said while referring to the downpour in Mirpurkhas and various other cities of Pakistan.

The PPP chairman also termed Nawaz a "coward" for avoiding the duel debate he had invited the PML-N supremo to compare PPP and PML-N's performances.

"They are terrified as they know that they haven't done anything. They are pressurising the caretaker government to send Form 45 to Raiwand," Bilawal said in reference to Nawaz's hometown.

The former foreign minister then called on his supporters not to leave the polling stations on February 8.

Meanwhile, Nawaz, who was campaigning in Gujranwala at the same time, claimed to have effectively addressed corruption during its previous tenure, while citing Transparency International report which reflected Pakistan's improvement in its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

Recalling his tenure as the country's chief executive from 2013 to 2017, Nawaz claimed that the PML-N government not only succeeded in tackling corruption but also effectively addressed rampant inflation.

The PML-N's election manifesto is primarily facing challenges from the Bilawal Bhutto-led PPP which is also promising major economic relief provisioning social welfare, free healthcare and electricity, to gain public support who have been facing the brunt of rampant inflation and soaring utility bills.