Daily Times

MARDAN: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must either resign or face a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) protest movement, PPP Cochairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday.

He was addressing a public gathering at the Railway Ground in Mardan. PPP leaders Nayyer Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar, Nawaz Khokar, Asima Alamgir, Khanzada Khan and Khawaja Muhammad Khan Hoti were also present.

“None of the five judges in the Panama case have given a clean chit to Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and his other family members. Rather, the judges themselves have raised the slogan of ‘Go Nawaz Go’,” he said.

Zardari said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government had “snatched” the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The PPP government will return the CPEC to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We had renamed North West Frontier Province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and given its people their identification,” he said.

He also hit out at the federal government for blocking identification cards. “The PPP is the only party that thinks about the poor people. It will continue to work for the development and prosperity of the people,” he said.

He said that the previous PPP government had established a university in Mardan.

Zardari also criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan for his failed policies. He rejected the claim that Imran Khan was the leader of the youth. “‘Imran Khan is even older than me. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the true and real leader of the younger generation,” he said.

“A captain has come. He thinks he is a Pakhtun. He writes Khan after his name. No one knows him here. He calls himself a Pathan, but for that, you need to be at least able to speak Pashto,” he added.

“Both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan were distributing sweets after the announcement of Panama verdict. Both claimed that the judgment was in their favour,” he said.

“In our next government, we will introduce such a system for government employees that their salaries are automatically raised whenever inflation occurs,” he said.

He said that the PPP government would also double the amount provided to destitute people given under the Benazir Income Support Programme.