Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that the rulers have a misunderstanding that they would form the government once again in Punjab.

While addressing a ceremony organised in the metropolis of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zardari said that this time around, the rulers would not be able to steal the mandate through rigging in elections.

He accused the federal government of benefiting Islamabad more saying that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has ‘deviated’ from provinces.

Economic condition of the country is not right and the government is relentlessly printing currency bills. The rulers of the country believe that ‘Mughal rule’ would continue, he said.

Zardari said that the political organisation would not get votes by erecting metro stations and introducing trains.

He vowed to run campaigns in every part of the country for General Elections 2018. “We could not campaign for elections in 2013 but we have resolved to expand our pre-election campaign this time to every town and house of the country,” said Zardari. He said that politics in Pakistan is not simple and urged party activists to intensify their activism at all levels.

Coming down hard on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said that the ruling party initiated several development schemes in Punjab in a bid to make majority in the province but have failed to stablilise the economy.

“One who made hefty claims of overcoming power outage issue by stating that if he failed to address the issue, he would change his name. I don’t know what name I should suggest to him,” he added.

Zardari credited the ongoing projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was initiative of the PPP which was later hijacked. “We saw the dream of CPEC for Khyber Paktunkhwa but it was hijacked by Islamabad.”

He said that the PPP stands for peace and will not let the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) create discord with neighbouring countries. He said that relations with Afghanistan were excellent and there was peace with India during the PPP’s tenure.

He claimed that Nawaz Sharif was acting upon US thoughts, adding that the government was printing currency to give an impression that the economy was stable.