‘Bad eggs’: Imran will not give tickets to PPP defectors, says Zardari

The PPP co-chairperson lambasts PM for ‘failure’ on diplomatic front

HYDERABAD: Asking his party workers not to get disconcerted by the recent defection of some PPP Punjab leaders to Imran Khan’s PTI, the PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has called the defectors ‘bad eggs’ and claimed that the PTI would not give such people its party ticket in the upcoming polls.

"Our small, bad eggs are going here and there. But, don't worry. The captain [Imran Khan] will not give them [the PTI’s] tickets," Zardari said while speaking at a party gathering in Moro area of Sindh’s Naushehro Feroze district on Saturday.

Zardari was talking apparently in an oblique reference to the PPP’s senior leaders – Senator Baber Awan and Firdous Ashiq Awan – who recently joined the PTI. “Such defections will not affect the PPP,” he added.

The PPP co-chairman also criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for ‘losing the war’ on the diplomatic front as he asked him to ‘pay attention to the global politics’.



Zardari recalled that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had asked Sharif to appoint a foreign minister who could steer the foreign policy. But, he said, the PM turned a deaf ear to the advice.

He said India was the only country that opposed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project “but that country's prime minister [Narendra Modi] is a friend of Sharif.”

He said India was occupying large swathes of land of Nepal and other countries. "But the world doesn't regard it as an occupation," he lamented.

The former president took credit for empowering parliament through the 18th constitutional amendment and removing the bar on election of prime minister for a third term. "Nawaz Sharif would have been the country's president and not the PM if we had not strengthened parliament."



Zardari also lambasted Sharif for not attending parliamentary proceedings.

"Even Muhammad Khan Junejo [former prime minister from 1985-88] attended more sessions of parliament [than Sharif]. If the PM set this precedent then the next PM would hardly attend parliament even once,” he added.

He reiterated that the CPEC was an initiative of the PPP's previous government and that it was his party which under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto laid the foundation of a strong friendship with China.

Talking about Naushehro Feroze and upper Sindh region, Zardari said feudal lords dominated the area due to which problems of the people could not be solved. He promised that the provincial government would provide employment to the youth on merit.



Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said the PPP wanted to bring a change in the system. But, he regretted, other politicians wanted to see a continuity of the existing system.

“The PPP wants to make democracy work for the poor. But Nawaz Sharif has always established a dictatorial system. The people raised in the lap of dictators can never change their thoughts," he added.