ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has dubbed Prime Minister Imran Khan “ghost employee” for receiving salary without coming to parliament and attending its sessions.

Talking informally to reporters here on Tuesday, the PPP chairman said the prime minister should come to the house and attend the sessions to answer questions.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said it was strange that the treasury members were protesting during his speech in the National Assembly on Monday evening. It was opposition’s job to protest as the government was supposed to answer, he said.

The PPP chairman reiterated that “controversial people” having links with banned organisations would have to be sacked. He said such a step would be beneficial for both the government and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, using his social media account on Twitter, Mr Bhutto-Zardari scoffed at the prime minister for declaring Japan and Germany as neighbours. “Our prime minister thinks that Germany and Japan share a border. How embarrassing, this is what happens when you let people in just because they can play cricket,” he tweeted.

Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in her tweet also took the prime minister to task over his remarks that in the past Pakistan’s soil had been misused by terrorists to carry out attacks in Iran.

“Vilifying and defaming your own country on foreign soil, sitting with foreign leaders, does not find a parallel in the national and diplomatic history,” she tweeted.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019