PPP has great respect for Gen Sharif, outburst was against ex-military dictators: Sherry Rehman

PPP vice president says the party holds Army chief in high esteem, lauds his role

ISLAMABAD: Days after former president Asif Zardari’s spoke allegedly against the military establishment, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) vice president Sherry Rehman sought to defend the party co-chairman’s statement, explaining that it was directed against past military dictators in the country, Express News reported.

“Peoples Party holds General Raheel Sharif in high esteem, and lauds his role,” she said while talking to media after an Iftar hosted by Zardari in Islamabad on Friday.

“We are talking about former military dictators who’ve assumed power and are trying to return to the political front.”

Rehman recounted how the PPP always faced military dictators in the past.

Former information minister and senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira too backed Zardari, saying the speech reflected the thoughts of every party member.

He added that all parties were supporting the ongoing security operation in Karachi, including Zardari. Kaira added that they did not defend corruption.

Read: Nisar calls Zardari’s speech ‘insulting’

Zardari on Tuesday said politicians were better suited to running the affairs of the country. “You are here for only three years,” he said in an apparent jab at the army chief.

Addressing an oath-taking ceremony for PPP office-bearers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Zardari said, “I know the art of war better than anyone else.”

The PPP co-chairman expressed annoyance at the purported character-assassination campaign against him and his party. “It needs to stop! There is a limit to everything.”

In response, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday censured Zardari for his outburst against the army, saying the PPP co-chairman’s speech was unacceptable in times of war.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan described the PPP co-chairman’s speech ‘inappropriate and insulting’.