Zardari calls for immediate arrest of Nawaz, his family

PPP co-chairman says the former ruling family is still getting VIP protocol

Former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday demanded that Nawaz Sharif and his family must be arrested immediately and made to face accountability just like he and his family did.

The PPP would not accept any deviation in this regard, said Zardari in a statement issued from Lahore, where he was addressing a meeting of the party’s manifesto committee.

The Sharif family, he said, was being accorded VIP protocol while facing accountability. Their requests for bail were being immediately approved while he had sometimes to wait for two and a half years for bail approvals, he added.



Zardari said that they routinely arrested “us and sent us to jail first before even looking at our cases”. He added, “We faced trials held at different venues. I wish the Sharif family has to endure the same.”

He reminded that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the first leader who allowed all Pakistanis to have passports. “Millions of Pakistanis are now living abroad and are prosperous. They are remitting foreign exchange and strengthening the national economy,” he added.

The former president of Pakistan also reminded that Benazir Bhutto had provided jobs to hundreds of thousands of young people when she ascended to power.

“She also restored the jobs of people terminated during the Zia regime. Elements who didn’t want people to prosper filed references against Benazir even for providing jobs to people. Anti-people forces dismissed her governments, rendering numerous government servants jobless,” he said.

“But when the PPP again ascended to power, it not only created new resources for jobs but also provided jobs to hundreds of thousands of people, restoring employees who were removed during the Nawaz Sharif era,” he added.



Terming the PPP’s manifesto revolutionary, Zardari said that education, health and peace were among top priorities of his party.

The PPP, he said, wanted to convert Pakistan into a welfare state in accordance with the vision and philosophy of Benazir Bhutto. “She envisioned a country with free access to justice and a state where people have full right to make progress.”

Senators Syed Naiyyar Hussain Bukhari, Saleem Mandviwala, Sherry Rehman, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, Chaudhry Lateef Akbar, Amjad Hussain, Dr Nafeesa Shah, Sabir Baloch, Akhundzada Chattan, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Syed Naveed Qamar attended the meeting.



Meanwhile, senior PPP leader Malik Hakmeen Khan met Zardari at the Zardari House in Lahore. They discussed the overall domestic situation in general and the political situation in district Attock in particular.

Appreciating Khan’s services for the party, Zardari asked him to mobilise party workers for the election campaign in Rawalpindi division.

Meanwhile, Zardari confirmed the candidacy of vice-president of PPP’s women wing Nasira Meo from NA-138 Kasur.

Nasira Meo said that Zardari announced this a day ago at a party meeting in Lahore.