LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that slogan of ‘Go Imran Go’ which is already reverberating in Sindh will soon start echoing across the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was incapable of running the country as it was not the job of a cricketer to manage a government’s affairs. He was neither a politician, nor a landlord or businessman, he therefore could not understand peoples’ issues, said Mr Zardari while speaking to party leaders and workers at Naudero House on Saturday.

He said that only democratic forces could pull the country out of the quagmire of multi-faceted crisis and not a ‘selected’ government. The claimant of change had pushed the country to the brink of disaster and people were already getting sick of this government, he said.

He accused the prime minister of using National Accountability Bureau against his opponents, which had seriously affected the performance of the bureaucracy.

About reports of presidential system, Mr Zardari said that even if it was imposed it would be short-lived. Opposition parties should launch anti-government campaign jointly, he said.

On Friday, Mr Zardari met PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the party’s MNAs and MPAs, leaders and workers at Naudero House and told them that they were like one big family and real assets of the party.

Imtiaz Shaikh, Sardar Chandio, Ramesh Lal, Hizbullah Bughio, Ms Naseeban Channa, Parveen Qaimkhani, Suhail Anwer Siyal, Gul Mohammad Jakhrani and Aijaz Jakhrani were also among those who met Mr Zardari.

PPP uninterested in in-house change, says Khuhro

PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that it makes no difference to his party if government itself is changed or in-house change is brought about as PPP only wants that democracy is not ‘derailed’ in either case.

Mr Khuhro said at a press conference at Larkana Press Club here on Sunday that change of the government did not necessarily mean danger to democracy and cited examples of Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf whose exit from premier’s office on apex court’s orders did not follow derailment of democracy. Likewise, disqualification of Mian Nawaz Sharif and his replacement with Shahid Khaqan Abbasi did not pose any threat to the system, he said.

He said that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would appear in Islamabad High Court on June 10 to seek confirmation of his bail and he was optimistic the court would confirm the bail. Mr Zardari had been appearing in courts in past as well and it was premature to talk about his arrest prior to the court’s decision, he said.

He evaded a question about probability of PPP’s pursuing reconciliatory policy with regard to the ruling party and said that National Finance Commission award and provincial autonomy were made possible only due to the ‘reconciliatory’ role of Mr Zardari in 2008.

He said the country was still in need of ‘reconciliation’ and alleged that the present government believed in a policy of pitting people against each other which in turn was harming both the country and the masses.

He called for a charter of economy on the pattern of charter of democracy and said that the PPP had floated the idea in past as well but rulers did not pay heed to it. The government’s policies had resulted in ‘polarisation’ in the country, he said.

He said the government had deliberately enhanced petroleum prices despite downward trend in fuel prices in the international market. That was how, he said, rulers were sucking the poor masses dry and forcing them to merely subsist with heavy burden of ever increasing prices of essential commodities.

Flanked by PPP Larkana district president Abdul Fatah Bhutto and PPP Larkana city president Nooruddin Abro, Mr Khuhro asked the federal government to clarify to nation what circumstances had led to unprecedented rise in dollar’s value. The rulers should also disclose names of the characters who had made windfall profits from the greenback’s rise and reveal how much they had amassed, he said.

About the impending anti-government campaign, Mr Khuhro said that PPP had never preferred ‘solo flight’ in its history and the party was in no mood for solo flight this time as well. Only if all political parties gathered on one platform they could save the country, he said.

Mr Khuhro said that leaders of all political parties had assembled under one roof at the Iftar party hosted by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and agreed to holding more meetings and a multiparty conference to start movement against the government. “Let us see when this conference is held to discuss and formulate strategy to begin the anti-government campaign,” he said.

He accused Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of stealing peoples’ mandate but added in the same breath that if Muttahida Qaumi Movement was feeling comfortable in the ruling alliance with one ministry and was tight-lipped over the issue of ‘mandate’ then it was their stance.

About Shaikh Rashid Ahmed’s use of uncouth language for PPP leaders, he said that Mr Ahmed should learn a lesson from history in what manner people had ‘greeted’ Gen Zia when he had visited Dadu and what Abid Sher Ali had experienced in Hyderabad.

He said that Justice Faez Isa, who could become Chief Justice of Supreme Court in future, should not have been targeted.

Asked about rumours Ghotki’s Mahars and former Sindh chief minister Liaquat Jatoi were planning to join PPP, he said that he could not say anything about ‘all Mahars’ as the only thing he knew was that the son of late Ali Mohammad Mahar had recently called on PPP chairman in Nawabshah. “Liaquat Ali Jatoi has not yet given me application,” said Mr Khuhro sarcastically.

Zardari leaves for Islamabad

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari left for Islamabad on Sunday after visiting Bhuttos’ mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto where he placed wreaths on the graves of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto and others, said party sources.

He was accompanied by PPP Sindh president Nisar Khuhro, Dr Qayoom Soomro, Abdul Fatah Bhutto. During his three-day stay at Naudero House, he met party’s elected representatives from Larkana and Sukkur divisions and met delegations of Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry and lawyers community, said the sources.

The sources said that the issue of fielding PPP’s candidate in by-election for National Assembly seat that fell vacant after the death of Ali Mohammad Mahar in Ghotki also came under discussion, said the sources.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2019