LARKANA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has ruled out possibility of any alliance with Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif in near or far future, and forewarned that Zardari, who is in hot water now because of Rs35 billion money laundering case, will soon patch up with Mr Sharif.

“Zardari will make him a phone call in London and say ‘we are Bhai Bhai’,” he said at a large public meeting held on Monday in Shahdadkot, his first in interior of Sindh since he launched election campaign in the province from Karachi.

He urged people to rise against usurpers and exploiters who now stood exposed in an FIA probe, which suggested they had been siphoning off public money. PPP and PML-N had an under-the-table deal to take turns to rule and plunder the public wealth till the other party waited for its turn, he said.

He said that Zardari and Sharif were happy with the deal but it was PTI that had challenged both the parties.

Mr Khan asked people of Sindh to break the shackles of fear and become masters of their destiny by making wise decision on July 25 and vote for the party whose manifesto was to serve them.

He said that not a single fake case had been registered against any political opponent since PTI government had brought reforms in police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whereas in Sindh rulers had been using police as their personal servants.

He said that people who voted such unscrupulous elements to power were directly responsible for their plight. There was massive corruption in Sindh as compared to other provinces and the level of poverty was high, he said.

He appealed to people to vote for PTI’s candidates who were committed to serve and herald a new era in Sindh.

Liaquat Jatoi, Amir Bakhsh Bhutto and other PTI leaders were also present at the public meeting which was held in tight security arrangements in Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stadium.

Qureshi says Zardari, Sharif may join forces to create unrest

MITHI: PTI vice chairman Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has expressed the fear that former president Asif Ali Zardari, whose name has come up in an FIA probe into a mega scam of money laundering, and convicted ex-premier Mian Nawaz Sharif may join forces to create unrest in the country.

Mr Qureshi told journalists in Chhachhro on Monday that Mr Zardari should be barred from flying to Dubai or somewhere else during the probe into his firm’s possible link to the scam.

He said that Mr Sharif was given enough time by the accountability court to prove his innocence but instead of providing hard evidence he tried to mount pressure on judiciary and establishment through his political shows.

Mr Qureshi believed public would not react if convicted former premier and his daughter were arrested on their arrival in Lahore or Islamabad.

He said that Mr Zardari and his cronies had no future and they would have to face consequences of their “misdeeds” soon. The PML-N and PPP leaders had befooled people for long and took turns to amass wealth by mega corruption but time had come now for them to face the music, he said.

He said that Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif had always been on the same page when it came to maligning state institutions. Conspiracies were afoot to delay general election but PTI would foil all such schemes and sweep election across the country, he said.

Mr Qureshi, who is also chief of his Ghousia Jamaat, said at public gatherings in Chhachhro, Dahli, and Nagarparkar areas that PPP government claimed to have spent billions of rupees on development projects, which had apparently benefited the party leaders more than general public as lion’s share of funds meant for peoples’ welfare had gone into their deep pockets.

He said the Sindh government had completely failed to deliver. It did not even provide life-saving drugs to hospitals in Thar during its 10-year rule and let hundreds of infants and pregnant women die.

Mr Qureshi said during a meeting with a delegation of Thar Education Alliance that it was a matter of shame that literacy rate among girls in Thar was merely eight per cent.

‘PPP candidates facing peoples’ wrath’

LARKANA: PTI candidate for PS-10 (Larkana-I) Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, who is contesting against PPP’s Faryal Talpur, has said the day is not far when Mr Zardari and his henchmen will be behind bars and said PPP candidates are facing peoples’ wrath during election campaign because of their arrogant attitude to public over the past 10 years in power.

Mr Bhutto said at a number of corner meetings in different villages near here on Monday that after failing to answer tough question from people, PPP candidates were clandestinely bribing women to buy their votes.

But he was confident their tactics would utterly fail because now womenfolk too understood the conspiracy and they knew Rs1,000 aid could not buy them education and healthcare for their kids, he said.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2018