LAHORE, Nov 16: Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz predicts Shah Mahmood Qureshi will either join Imran Khan’s camp or the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

“Whatever the party he joins, Qureshi will be defeated by the PPP candidate in the 2013 elections,” said Mr Riaz at a press conference on Wednesday. Both Mr Qureshi and PPP leaders are trading blames after the former resigned from the party and the National Assembly membership this week accusing PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Zardari of compromising national interests.

Riaz said the party was least bothered about the departure of Qureshi as “he (Mr Qureshi) left party for his petty political gains”, contradicting the former PPP Punjab president’s claim that he left the party for it had lost its ideological identity with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

“If it’s not Benazir’s party, why he remained part of the party for three years?” he said.

He also rejected Qureshi’s claim that Zardari had pressured him to declare diplomatic immunity for Raymond Davis, the self-confessed killer of two Lahore youths this year.

He said the PPP government had consulted all institutions, including the Punjab government, on the issue.

To prove his point that Qureshi had been a blue-eyed of the Musharraf regime, Riaz said the previous government had facilitated him during a long march in 2007.

“I was arrested along with him (Qureshi) in Faisalabad. I was sent to jail while he (Qureshi) was kept under house arrest for the reasons only known to him,” he added.

Riaz also criticised Imran, calling him “a player involved in ball tampering”.

He also predicted that the Punjab would be bankrupt if Shahbaz Sharif continued working as chief minister.

He alleged that the PML-N leadership had forced all Punjab employees, including sweepers and teachers, to attend a PML-N gathering in Faisalabad on Nov 20.

PPP leaders Ashraf Sohna, Zulfiqar Gondal and Shaukat Basra were also present. —Staff Reporter