Qureshi for Imran-Zardadri debate

The foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has invited Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari for a debate with Prime Minister Imran Khan on the national media to give accountability of their respective governments.

He was speaking at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Huqooq-e-Sindh March which reached Larkana on Monday on its way to Karachi where it will reach after passing through about two dozen districts of Sindh.

"PM Imran Khan will be the first to explain his government's performance over the last three years and then we will ask Zardari about his 15 years rule." The PTI's vice president said the nation will be made the judge to decide which leader between the two of them is right.

The FM gave reference of the US presidential election in whose run up the candidates take on each other in the televised debates. Qureshi also challenged the PPP's contention that they are ready for the snap polls once the PTI's government is sent packing.

"This is not true. You only want to purchase people [to install a new set up without elections]." He believed that only Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz wanted pre-term general elections. Qureshi said any person of conscience will not let themselves be bought off by the PPP for the no confidence vote against the PM.

"I hope that the no confidence drama of the opposition will fail." He again urged the people of Sindh to consider why the PPP has lost popularity in Punjab, K-P, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan where it stands replaced by PTI.

"This is a matter for you to ponder over. If the people of Punjab, K-P, Azad Kashmir and G-B have changed their decisions, Sindhis, will you not change your decision for your future?" Qureshi, a popular spiritual personality of Sindh boomed.

He reiterated that the law and order situation in Sindh has been worsening. Seven members of Qureshi family were kidnapped from the constituency of PPPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The federal minister for planning Asad Umar asked the people to analyze which political party between PTI and PPP is implementing the Zulfiqar Bhutto's political ideology. He blamed the PPP's leadership for trading off the mausoleum of Bhuttos in Garhi Khuda Baksh, Larkana, to mint money. "They aren't following Zulfiqar Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto."

He said Bhutto's approach was global in his leadership but the same political flare cannot be seen in the incumbent leaders of the PPP. However, he asserted, Imran Khan is making his impression felt on the global stage.

He urged the people of Sindh to accept the leadership of Imran Khan and get rid of Zardari and his associates.

The Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Ali Zaidi stooped to the unfounded claims that Zardari used to black tickets in his father's cinema in Karachi. "Then he married Benazir Bhutto and made so much money so fast." He said both Zardari and N league's leader former PM Mian Nawaz Sharif are stashing their stolen wealth abroad.

Zaidi asserted that the PTI will bring a downfall of PPP in Sindh, referring to Zulfqiar Bhutto's quote which meant that PPP's electoral defeat in Lyari will be a sign of the party's crumbling popularity.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2022.