Pakistan

Zardari using scapegoats to hide corruption: Nawaz

Says had Gilani followed democracy, they could have been friends.

Rabia Ali June 23, 2012

KARACHI:

While Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was being sworn-in in Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif used a public rally in Pakistan Peoples Party’s bastion of power to hit out at President Asif Ali Zardari for “using scapegoats to hide his corruption”.

“Raja Pervaiz Ashraf will not write a letter to the Swiss authorities and consequently he will also be fired. How many men will Zardari bring in as scapegoats to cover up his corruption?” Nawaz told a modest crowd in Sehwan on Friday.

He was referring to an apex court direction to the country’s chief executive to write a letter to the authorities in Switzerland to reopen a dormant graft case against president Zardari.

Nawaz said he was not in Sindh to canvass for his party, but to awaken his Sindhi brothers against corrupt forces.

“Think about Pakistan. Think about the future of the country, and you will know who is there to serve Pakistan and who is plundering national wealth,” he said.

Nawaz’s rally coincided with an impressive Jalsa by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Hyderabad. Talking about Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s predecessor, the PML-N chief said had he listened to him and followed the path of ‘true democracy’, they could have been friends and saved him the embarrassment of being disqualified.

“(Yousaf Raza) Gilani sacrificed his entire political career for one corrupt man,” he claimed.

Flanked by provincial leaders of the PML-N, including Ghous Ali Shah, Saleem Zia, Liaquat Jatoi and Marvi Memon, Sharif lashed out at the government for not doing anything to improve the standards of living in the past four years.

“People are fed up with the perennial issues of load shedding and inflation. While they spend their whole day sweating and toiling to earn a living, the skyrocketing price of daily-use items is breaking their backs.”

He claimed that during his tenure, people were neither poor nor did they witness power outages.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2012.