London (TDI): Former foreign minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday called out the hypocrisy of Western nations, questioning what makes a state entitled to nuclear weapons.
During a speech at the Oxford Union, a prestigious debating society that invites world leaders to speak on major issues before students and academics, Bilawal said he was “concerned that Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme is sanctioned by the US.
He questioned who defines the rules for a country’s defence capabilities.
“I am struck by the hypocrisy. Is it that every Western or White nation is allowed nuclear weapons and others are not? Pakistan’s is not an aggressive nuclear weapons programme,” he said.
He also made a veiled jibe at recent statement of US President Donald Trump, stating “We do not have an expansionist policy to seize the Panama Canal or take over Canada. Ours nuclear weapons are only for self-defence.”
The event was an ode to the ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, titled the ‘Benazir Bhutto Memorial Lecture’ to discuss democracy in a divided world.
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A portrait of the late Benazir Bhutto hung in the hall, overlooking the podium where her scion spoke, according to Dawn.
Bilawal spoke at length about his mother, an alumnus of the prestigious university and also the Union’s first Asian woman president.
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He lauded her sacrifices for democracy, her commitment to politics, and her position as a female politician who was also a mother.
“My mother came to Oxford at the age of sixteen to study and then went to Pakistan at the age of 25 to participate in politics,” he said.
“She was an extraordinary woman, with whom people would establish a personal relationship.”
“My mother did not teach me to take revenge that is why I say that democracy is the best revenge,” Bilawal said.
