Daily Times

KARACHI: Claiming that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will once again find its way to the corridors of power after the 2018 general election, former president Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said that his party would not allow anyone to derail democracy in Pakistan, which was growing to maturity.

“Pakistan will never be a failed state… we don’t want our country to be a failed state,” the PPP co-chairman said while addressing charged party workers on his return to the country. “Democracy is growing in Pakistan… and there is no (suitable) alternative to democracy. Alternatives to democracy are very dangerous… we don’t want to become Syria.”

“There is a lot of despair at the moment among the people of the country. I have not come to increase it at all; I have brought a message of hope with me,” he said, adding that the nation would hear ‘good news’ on December 27 – the death anniversary of slain PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. “It does not matter who is sitting in the seat today. What matters is that who will lead us tomorrow,” he said, adding that the PPP would be in power again after the next general election.

“I want to give a message to all political actors in this country: we may occasionally leave the country, but it does not mean that we ran away… we will always be buried at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh,” he said.

“All those politicians taking credit for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have forgotten who the actual architects and initiators of the plan were,” he said, adding that the corridor was not just a road but a much more comprehensive development project of the Subcontinent.

“They (treasury members) are only interested in contracts [that will follow the CPEC]. They don’t know the vision behind this project. It is for our future generation,” he said. “All of Balochistan, KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Sindh and Punjab will be the beneficiary of the CPEC project.”

Talking about Kashmir, the former president categorically said that “Held Kashmir will become Pakistan” because the youth in Kashmir were raising Pakistani flags despite the Indian administration’s extreme acts of violence against innocent people.

“Pakistan’s flag is a symbol of unity. Pakistan is a nation that has overcome each and every challenge. Pakistan is not a country of terrorists at all,” he added.

It may be mentioned here that the former president returned to they country after abruptly leaving on June 25 last year following a hard-hitting speech in which he lashed out at the military establishment for overstepping its domain.

After his arrival, Zardari had a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Zardari also consulted with his party leaders at the VVIP lounge of the airport.