PESHAWAR: Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has warned that his party will not let anyone steal the public mandate in Punjab in the next general elections, saying that PPP workers will stay at every polling station till the announcement of complete results.

He was speaking at a workers’ convention of his party held at the residence of former federal minister Arbab Alamgir in Tehkal area here on Sunday.

He was accompanied by PPP provincial president Engineer Mohammad Humayun Khan, Qaim Ali Shah, Nayyar Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar, Nawaz Khokhar and other senior leaders.

Arbab Alamgir and Asma Alamgir also spoke on the occasion.

Says party workers will stay at every polling station till announcement of complete results during next general elections

The former president criticised the federal government for “printing new notes and taking foreign loans”. Terming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a ‘Mughal Badshah’, he said his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would not be able to get votes on name of new train services and metro buses in Punjab, adding that the PPP would form government in the province after the next elections.

He said the PPP had not campaigned properly for the 2013 general elections. But for the next general elections, he added, the party would mobilise its workers and launch an effective campaign. “I will visit every corner of the country to meet people.”

He said PPP workers were followers of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who did not bow down before dictators and faced their opponents bravely, adding that the workers would launch a vigorous campaign for the next elections.

Mr Zardari claimed that the national economy was deteriorating with each passing day and the condition of poor people in the country was worsening. The government was doing nothing to mitigate miseries of the low income group, he added.

He blamed the government for energy crisis in the country, saying that before coming to power Mr Sharif used to say that the PML-N would solve energy problem within 90 days. But the PML-N had failed to solve the energy problem even after remaining in power for four years, he said, adding that the energy crisis had brought the country’s progress to a standstill.

The former president said after winning the next election the PPP would work for the poor. “We will double the number of cards of the Benazir Income Support Programme.”

Mr Zardari claimed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was his dream. He said after coming to power the PPP would ensure that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan were getting benefits of the CPEC.

He criticised the PML-N government’s foreign policy and said the PPP wanted Pakistan’s cordial relations with its neighbours. He claimed that the previous PPP government had good relations with Iran and Afghanistan and it even tried to improve ties with India.

He said wars had no solution for any problem and the prime minister should realise the negative impacts of conflicts.

He said Pakhtuns suffered heavily during the war on terror, adding that they also suffered due to wrong policies of the government.

He said in a bid to cover up its own inefficiency the government had blocked a large number of computerised national identity cards of Pakhtuns, causing serious problems for them.

Mr Zardari supported the demand of the people of tribal areas for rights and said if the PPP came to power it would work for the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with KP. He said he loved Fata people and he had proven it by appointing a KP governor from the tribal region when he was president.

Meanwhile, Mr Zardari spent a busy day in Peshawar on Sunday. He held meetings with the PPP office-bearers from Bannu, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and other cities.

Led by Zaafran Shah some PPP workers from Dera Ismail Khan held a protest sit-in outside the residence of Humayun Khan against what they called discrimination in appointments of party office-bearers in their area.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017