For PM’s resignation: PPP kicks off agitation movement from Punjab

Kaira says no power could save the PML-N govt now

LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has kicked off its agitation campaign to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down in the wake of the apex court verdict in Panamagate case and has announced public gatherings across Punjab -- the ruling party’s political bastion.

“PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will soon hold a big public gathering at the Minar-e-Pakistan, even though the party is not allowed to set up its agitation camp at the historic site,” said PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira while addressing a public gathering in Nasir Bagh here on Thursday.

“Even military rulers like Ziaul Haq or Pervez Musharraf could not stand in front of the PPP. Now the party has decided to permanently end the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rule and no power could save them,” he added.



Kaira said Sharifs used to claim that they would leave politics forever if even a single corruption case was proved against them. “However, now the apex court has declared them dishonest and liar [in the Panamagate case] but they are still trying to deceive the nation,” he added.

He said Sharifs had repeatedly alleged that they lost their fortunes during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto regime in the 1970’s when their businesses were nationalised. “But I want to ask them if their assets were nationalized, how they established businesses in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and London. How they purchased properties abroad worth billions of rupees when they had no assets left,” he added.

Kaira -- a senior PPP leader from Gujrat -- is always admired among political circles and media for his immaculate Urdu accent. However, on Thursday he purposefully chose his mother tongue, Punjabi, to address the audience hailing from different parts of the province.



“During the PPP regime, crude oil prices were above $130 per barrel, but power outages were under control. Right now, people are facing unprecedented power outages and are compelled to ask rulers what they have done,” he said.

Doctors were on the road and poor patients were compelled to lie on floors for treatment in public hospitals as the government had failed to provide beds, said the PPP leader. “The government had made a couple of Daanish schools, but over 25 million children are out of the school. Everybody wants to ask the rulers: What have you done for health and education sectors?” he said.

Speaking earlier, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah held Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for power outages in the country, informing the audience that Sharif’s previous government had cancelled all power generation agreements that were signed during the PPP government tenure.



He alleged that after assuming the charge, the rulers had distributed Rs480 billion among their blue-eyed power producers on the pretext of settling the circular debt.

“[After settling the debt] they had announced that the government would not allow this inter-corporate debt to rise again, but [contrary to their claims] it had once again reached a whopping Rs380 billion, and the nation is still suffering from terrible power load-shedding spanning as long as 14 hours.

“Sharifs might get bailed out in the Panamagate and Dawn Leaks cases but they could not save their skin from the load-shedding [backlash],” he said.

In his address, senior PPP leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said the entire state machinery was trying to save premier’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who was the main accuse in the Dawn Leaks controversy.

“The government has made principal information officer Rao Tehsin and PM’s special assistant Tariq Fatemi scapegoats to save the prime minister’s daughter,” he said, adding that his party was standing by the news publication, its editor and journalists.