Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday said that his party parted ways with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after the former ruling party compromised on the “sanctity of the vote”.

“As long as PML-N’s narrative [remained] vote ko izzat do (give respect to vote), we kept along but when this narrative changed, staying together became difficult,” the former foreign minister said while speaking to the media in Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi area.

Bilawal once again reiterated his stance on the absence of equal opportunities as a political party, saying that the PPP never got a level-playing field in any election.

However, he said that the PPP will win the election this time even if there is no level-playing field. “Our connection is with the nation while the others have with special selection teams.”

Bilawal further said that the PPP’s stance has always been that the elections should be conducted.

However, the “others” narrative was different earlier compared to now, he added without naming anyone.

Speaking about the newly-formed alliance between the PML-N and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the PPP’s top leader said that both parties would have to lose due to this union.

The two parties on Tuesday announced that they would be jointly contesting the upcoming general elections — scheduled to take place on February 8, 2024.

As the time of general elections drew nearer, the rift between the former allies grew with the PPP persistently voicing concerns regarding the absence of equal opportunities to prove itself ahead of the polls.

With parties getting engaged in electioneering, the PPP believes that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was also being given preferential treatment as he returned to the country last month ending a four-year-long self-imposed exile in London, with all his legal hurdles cleared one after the other.

Last month, Bilawal — while addressing a public rally in Muzaffargarh — took a subtle jibe at the PML-N — by saying that it was “really a weird thing that a certain party had given the date for the election”.

On September 19, the PPP leader had come down hard on the PML-N for “denying” the level-playing field. He had said that their concerns regarding the level-playing field were especially with a particular political party, which is the PML-N.