Daily Times

Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday ruled out the possibility of contesting the next elections as part of an alliance with the ruling coalition.

“PPP will contest the next elections on the arrow symbol and not for an alliance with the ruling PDM,” the PPP supremo told a press conference in Vehari. “We are not a part of the PDM, but we are their partners in the government,” the PPP stalwart said.

Zardari said politics was an art of possibilities, but Imran Khan is not a politician rather he is known for taking U-turns. “Negotiations can be held only with politicians and political parties, and not someone like Imran Khan,” he added.

He said Imran Khan had done a few things as a prime minister that needed to be stopped, and had he not been stopped, he would have “sold more institutions”. He said Imran Khan was ousted from power to save the country as he wanted to sell all the state institutions. “Had Imran Khan remained in the Prime Minister’s Office, he would have completely ruined the country,” he maintained. To a question, he said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won the by-election in Rajanpur due to the price hike and not due to Imran Khan’s popularity.

The PPP leader said it was the interior minister’s authority to arrest Imran Khan in any case. As regards the ongoing digital census, Asif Zardari said the Sindh government had some reservations on the matter.

Asif Zardari appreciated Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani for his political struggle, who remained imprisoned for six years and that was why he (Zardari) had made him the prime minister during the last PPP government. On the contrary, he said, Imran Khan feared facing courts, which was not a trait of a politician. To a question, he said the coalition government had to put the national economy on the right track. “Pakistan was a country and not a public limited company which would be liquified. Japan and other countries had defaulted in the past,” he said.

Regarding the recent remarks made by his son Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari about quitting the government, Zardari dismissed them as an outburst of youthful anger. He added that Bilawal was a young man who gets angry quickly, whereas he himself was used to enduring anger. Zardari said during the PPP’s government (2008-13), they increased the salaries and pensions of employees and provided jobs to people.