Still don't trust him: Khawaja Asif on Asif Zardari

PML-N stalwart’s statement indicates fragility of newly formed opposition alliance

In a development that reveals the fragility of the opposition parties’ newly formed alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), PML-N stalwart Khawaja Asif has said it was “difficult” for him to trust PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari

“I still have reservations against this gentleman [Zardari],” the former foreign minister disclosed on Express News talk show ‘To The Point With Mansoor Ali Khan’, suggesting that there is still some bad blood between the two parties, which were once bitter rivals. It also indicates that the alliance might be on shaky ground.

The PML-N leader said that he still had qualms about trusting Zardari and his opinion of the former president had not changed.

“It is difficult for me to believe him [Zardari] even today,” he added. "I will say this again and again, I don’t believe him.”

میں بار بار کہوں گا کہ مجھے آصف علی زرداری پر یقین نہیں ہے، خواجہ آصف pic.twitter.com/XJtWLgJOcZ

— Mansoor Ali Khan (@_Mansoor_Ali) September 30, 2020

However, former premier and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif told reporters in London that he disagreed with his party man’s statement. “This is not our party policy. I have a great deal of respect for Asif Ali Zardari sahib and he is a part of the PDM,” he added.

“I don’t know whether he [Khawaja Asif] has given this statement or not but I have conveyed to you about what I feel about him [Zardari].”

Asif’s statement came at a time when the opposition parties are preparing to stage their first rally under the banner of their newly formed alliance on October 11 in Quetta as part of their strategy to send the PTI-led government packing.

The PML-N has taken a tougher stance against the present regime as compared to PPP which seems to be keeping its "options" open.

At an all parties conference on September 20, Sharif launched a no-holds-barred onslaught against a “parallel state” in Pakistan and said the opposition’s struggle was not against Imran Khan “but against those who had imposed such an incapable person on the country through a rigged election”.

During the PPP-hosted confab, the opposition parties announced the formation of the PDM to begin a countrywide protest campaign and demanded immediate resignation of PM Imran.

They also ratcheted up its narrative against alleged rigging in the July 2018 general election and demanded that the powerful establishment should not only refrain itself from interfering in politics but also confine to its role as defined in the Constitution.

Through a 26-point resolution and a seven-point action plan issued after the APC, the opposition put forward its demands, including free, fair, transparent elections without having any role of the armed forces and agencies.