PHOTO: FILE
Announcing to wage a war against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said his party can reconcile with any party except the PML-N, whose leaders – Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif – are incapable of doing politics.
"We have decided that whatever may happen there will be no reconciliation with you [PML-N]. With you there can only be a fight now," Zardari said amid cheering of thousands of the PPP supporters, who gathered from across the country at Garhi Khuda Bux in Larkana to commemorate the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 39th death anniversary.
He said his party's decision is based on a mistrust of the PML-N and a noticeable vacuity of political leadership and prudence in former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif.
"You [Sharif brothers] don't understand politics because you think you are Mughal kings. Politics isn't your business. God willing the PPP will oust you from politics," said Zardari, advising the ruling family to leave Pakistan and settle in some other country where they can live a life of leisure.
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"God willing we won't let you elect a chief minister, even in Punjab [after 2018 elections]," he claimed. "Remember this. I am telling you today." He said the PPP will form a coalition government in Punjab with any other political party excluding the N league.
Zardari recalled that six months prior to the Senate polls he had also challenged that the PPP would not let the PML-N elect its Senate chairman.
"They didn't understand what I meant then. But when the time came they realised it and put the chairman's seat in Raza Rabbani's [Senate former chairman] lap to instigate infighting in the PPP."
The PPP's leader said Sharif will be held accountable not just for his party's incumbent government but for all his previous stints as premier. He asked Sharif to come before a ‘truth and reconciliation commission’ to tell about his deeds since he assumed power for the first time.
The PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also threw down the gauntlet to both Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) chief Imran Khan. He said 2018 polls will mark his dawn in politics and twilight of Sharif and Khan.
"Remember it’s going to be their last and my first election. I am rising and you [they] are setting."
He said the N league thrice formed the federal government but the party lacked the capability to govern the country. "The elder Mian and the younger Mian, it's beyond your capability to govern."
Describing himself as a successor of Bhutto and Sharif as a successor of Gen Ziaul Haq, he asked the people to decide whom they will vote. "There is the third one [Khan] who is riding the horse of hypocrisy and on his flag is written the word U-turn."
He mocked Khan as an extension of Sharif, arguing that the two leaders do not differ in their politics, economic vision and association with religious extremists.
Bilawal claimed that the extremist elements feel threatened to see the PPP in the power and that they are uniting in their support for the PML-N and the PTI as the elections approach.
"We [PPP] are different. Our politics are for the poor and theirs for the rich," he asserted while trying to lend credence to his statement by pointing to the Bhutto led land reforms in the 1970s, women empowering measures of Benazir Bhutto and some other programmes of Zardari led government.
The PPP's chairman said terrorism cannot be defeated through military action alone as comprehensive policies encompassing education, employment and elimination of extremism are required.
He contended that only the PPP can confront terrorism and extremism, which he described as the 'pharaoh' of present times. "In each of the last four decades Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto, Murtaza Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto sacrificed their lives fighting the pharaohs of their era."
Comparing Bhutto with Sharif and Khan, he said ZAB left lasting imprints in just 11 years and 3 months after founding the PPP, whereas, Sharif has been in politics for 32 years and Khan for over 20 years, but neither of them can cite an achievement which remotely matches Bhutto's contributions.
"This Pakistan is a gift of Bhutto. The 1973 Constitution is a big accomplishment of Bhutto," he added.
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