LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari launched another diatribe against the Sharif brothers on Friday, saying they had ‘stiff necks’ and he knew how to humble them.

“I gave concession to the Sharif brothers only to send Gen Musharraf packing,” the president said while speaking to party activists at the Governor’s House here on Friday.

He said Punjab would vote the People’s Party to power next year because the “arrogance’ of the PML-N had made it unpopular. “The PML-N does not have majority in Punjab, but we never tried to topple its government,” Mr Zardari said, adding that the PPP did not believe in “the politics of hypocrisy”.

The president asked party workers to make preparations for the next elections and said he would personally visit all divisions of Punjab before the polls to strengthen the party in the province.

The PPP said President Zardari’s earlier statement that the Sharifs did not have “enough followers to shoulder the funeral of their father in Lahore” was misquoted. “The president did not say anything about the funeral of the father of Sharif brothers,” Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said.

President Zardari further said the PPP had come to power in hard times and successfully completed first four years of its term, adding that those workers who had given sacrifices for the party would not be ignored. He said he would be in touch with workers and continue to visit Lahore. The president directed federal ministers to address workers’ grievances and give them respect. He said the PPP government would soon overcome the energy crisis and solve the loadshedding problem.

Suggestions given by PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Husain to resolve the energy crisis would be referred to parliament, Mr Zardari said.

He reiterated that the PPP would contest the next elections with its allies.