Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said neither he nor his party is interested in toppling the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, a private TV channel reported.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the former president said he doesn’t want to topple the government but want the PTI to fail and leave the government itself.

About the upcoming all parties conference (APC) against the government, Zardari said the initiative was taken by Fazlur Rehman and it is yet to be seen if the conference sees the light of the day or not. “Neither Nawaz Sharif needs me nor do I need him … this initiative (APC) was taken by Fazlur Rehman and it is yet to be seen if it remains successful,” he said, in response to a question about a possible alliance between PML-N and PPP against the government.

Zardari claimed that he was being ‘attacked from all sides’ and his friends were being taken into custody as part of a larger conspiracy to reverse the 18th Amendment. “I saw during the election campaign why they are attacking me from all sides,” he said, without specifying to whom he was referring to. “I can now understand that it is a quarrel over the 18th Amendment,” he added. “When they failed in their effort to take away government in Sindh from the PPP, efforts started to undo the amendment,” he said. “Even if Sindh tries to repeal the amendment, other provinces will not agree to it. Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even Punjab will never agree to roll back the legislation,” he said, adding that Punjab has the biggest advantage from the amendment because of its high population and the money it receives.

Stressing that the amendment had been passed with a long-term vision in mind, he said, again without naming anyone, “This is not your job… you leave this to the parliament, we will quarrel and wrangle [but] resolve this ourselves.”

Zardari claimed that two of his men, who he had been communicating with lately regarding a harvest and construction of an autaq (guest room) in Tando Allahyar, were recently picked up. He said authorities are now going after a group that he helped with industrialisation in Sindh. “[They] term trading accounts as fake accounts,” he said, in a reference to a fake accounts case in which he is also being interrogated.

Seemingly appreciating the $6 billion financial assistance the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has secured from Saudi Arabia, Zardari said such cooperation between the two ‘life-long friends’ had been seen in the past as well. He also termed China an all-time trusted friend of Pakistan which could be of help in difficult times. “But this [assistance from foreign countries] won’t do,” he said, adding that the PTI government would have to rethink its management and ‘aggression’.

In response to a question, Zardari denied having sought any NRO from Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying he hadn’t asked for the NRO from even former military dictator Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf. “The actors are worse than the act. They are bad actors. Actors of dictatorial act are doing a poor job. They will reap what they are sowing,” he remarked.

Published in Daily Times, October 28^th 2018.