Beware of politicians like Imran and Sharif, Zardari tells K-P people

PPP co-chairman calls PTI chief victim of self-glorification who wants to see himself on TV daily

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has called upon the people to stay away from corrupt politicians.

“The nation should keep their children away from leaders like Mian Sahib [Nawaz Sharif] and Imran Khan,” Zardari said while addressing his supporters at the residence of senior party leader Arbab Alamgir Khan in Peshawar on Tuesday.

Zardari said the deposed prime minister has been repeatedly saying, “Why I’ve been disqualified”. “Sharif had stepped down because he feared those who wanted him to leave the Prime Minister’s Office,” he added. “We [PPP] never asked him to quit.”

He said the PPP knew all along that the 2013 elections had been rigged, but still “we allowed them [PML-N] to form the government”.

The PPP co-chairman said when the PPP had been voted to power in 2008, the country was in dire straits. “The country had been mired in crises, but the PPP successfully resolved them and bequeathed a stable Pakistan to the present rulers.”

But the PML-N has destroyed everything and “today the country is once again mired in crises”, he added.



Speaking about Imran, he said the PTI chief had miserably failed to resolve the plethora of problems faced by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. “Imran Khan is just an innocent cricketer,” he said. “Imran is a victim of self-glorification who wants to see himself on TV screen daily.”

Zardari added that when Imran had failed to run Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, how he could run the country if given the chance to become prime minster.

Referring to the dengue outbreak which has claimed dozens of lives, he said a party which had been unable to save people from a mosquito would never be able to steer the country out of myriad crises.

Referring to the renaming of NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Zardari said the PPP government had given the K-P people their identity.

About the proposed Fata reforms, Zardari said it was his party which had initiated the process of reforms in the tribal regions to bring tribesmen into the national mainstream. “The PPP believes Fata tribesmen should be given the choice to decide their future,” he added.



The PPP co-chairman said he was visiting Peshawar to oversee his party’s preparations for the NA-4 by-elections.

Party sources told The Express Tribune that it was lack of interest by PPP’s local leadership in the by- polls that prompted Zardari’s visit.

“He has expressed dismay over the lack of interest on the part of the party leadership in the election campaign,” said a PPP leader on the condition of anonymity.

He added that each provincial leader of the party had been given a union council of the constituency for campaigning.

Zardari accused the PML-N and PTI of using the state machinery for election campaigns of their respective candidates. “The federal government is installing transfers while the provincial government is busy putting up solar bulbs,” he added.