Principles of politics: Politicians not technocrats found, run countries, says Zardari

Ex-president pledges more opportunities for women

LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday technocrats could neither found nor run a country.

He was speaking at a meeting of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) women workers and office-bearers at Bilawal House.

Zardari said the PPP was committed to providing greater opportunities of growth to women. “Both my advisers are women,” he said.

“The PPP co-chairman said he treated all women workers like Asifa and Bakhtawar. He said Asifa would start her political career after completing her education next year,” a participant of the meeting told The Express Tribune.

“My sisters could have become National Assembly members on reserved seats but they contested general elections to become parliamentarians,” another participant of the meeting quoted Zardari as saying.

Zardari told women workers he would again visit Lahore after the October 18 public meeting in Karachi. He said he would meet their families and encourage the youth to join politics.

He said elections would be held when the PPP would want them.

“In politics, one has to keep one’s heart open and one’s head down. Politicians in the US and UK are not ridiculed as much as they are in Pakistan. It is the politicians who put the country on the road to progress,” the former president said.

He said that for the first time, the PPP had elected a woman as speaker of the National Assembly and appointed one as foreign minister. Zardari said the PPP did not let the parliament fall, although it opposed the government’s economic policies.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2014.