Bitter fallout: Party warns Qureshi over controversial deluge
PPP leaders say former foreign minister quit when denied portfolio of choice.
ISLAMABAD:
Following a deluge of criticism by its former stalwart, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday warned former foreign minister to be careful in his political statements.
“Qureshi should correct his political perspective since everyone is well aware of the past,” said PPP’s information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira.
Referring to Qureshi’s disclosure of having resigned over the Davis issue, Kaira said that Qureshi had taken oath and should not disclose state secrets “which could harm the country”.
Kaira was addressing a press conference in Islamabad to introduce PPP’s newly-appointed president for Southern Punjab, Makhdoom Shahabuddin.
“It all started when he was not given the portfolio of his choice (the foreign ministry),” Kaira said.
Responding to Qureshi’s statement that Zardari had buried Benazir Bhutto’s vision, Kaira said, rather pointedly, “Until he remained minister, BB’s vision was alive.”
Seconding Kaira, Shahabuddin said that Qureshi had no differences with the PPP until the cabinet was reshuffled in February this year.
The people of Southern Punjab have ‘disapproved’ of Qureshi’s statements, he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media in Islamabad, federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the government was “aware of the conspiracies” that Qureshi was hatching.
Awan said that Qureshi had ‘unveiled’ his face and now party members knew that he was an ‘opportunist’. She added that Qureshi quit the ministry over his political portfolio.
Terming Qureshi a ‘political nomad’, Awan warned that once someone leaves the PPP, he is “humiliated in the world and the hereafter.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2011.
Following a deluge of criticism by its former stalwart, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday warned former foreign minister to be careful in his political statements.
“Qureshi should correct his political perspective since everyone is well aware of the past,” said PPP’s information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira.
Referring to Qureshi’s disclosure of having resigned over the Davis issue, Kaira said that Qureshi had taken oath and should not disclose state secrets “which could harm the country”.
Kaira was addressing a press conference in Islamabad to introduce PPP’s newly-appointed president for Southern Punjab, Makhdoom Shahabuddin.
“It all started when he was not given the portfolio of his choice (the foreign ministry),” Kaira said.
Responding to Qureshi’s statement that Zardari had buried Benazir Bhutto’s vision, Kaira said, rather pointedly, “Until he remained minister, BB’s vision was alive.”
Seconding Kaira, Shahabuddin said that Qureshi had no differences with the PPP until the cabinet was reshuffled in February this year.
The people of Southern Punjab have ‘disapproved’ of Qureshi’s statements, he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media in Islamabad, federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the government was “aware of the conspiracies” that Qureshi was hatching.
Awan said that Qureshi had ‘unveiled’ his face and now party members knew that he was an ‘opportunist’. She added that Qureshi quit the ministry over his political portfolio.
Terming Qureshi a ‘political nomad’, Awan warned that once someone leaves the PPP, he is “humiliated in the world and the hereafter.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2011.