Daily Times

Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supremo Asif Ali Zardari has said the opposition parties are devising a joint strategy to send the current government packing before November 2019.

Talking to reporters at the Parliament House on Monday, Zardari said the government will weaken the parliament by doing away with the law of production order. They will also suffer because of this action, he warned. Slamming the National Assembly speaker over non-issuance of production orders, he said it is against parliamentary ethics to not issue production orders to enable a lawmaker to attend the session of parliament.

He said that Nawaz Sharif is unwell and should be shifted to his house. He demanded that the PML-N supremo’s house be declared a sub-jail where he could serve the prison term awarded to him in the Al-Azizia case.

To a question, Zardari said Prime Minister Imran Khan did not allow the airing of his TV interview due to a scandal. To another question, he said that the future belongs to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maryam Nawaz. “Maryam is just like a daughter to me and I have been advising her in the past,” he said.

The PPP leader said that the country is under a ‘civilian martial law’. “It will take three to four months to topple the government,” he said. “InshaAllah, a civilian government will take the reins of the country,” he added.

When asked about Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik’s purported video, the PPP leader he has not seen any such video as he has no access to television. “I have not seen the video brought forward by Maryam Nawaz because I do not have access to TV,” he said. “The PPP leadership continued to attend Justice Qayyum’s court despite knowing everything. We were convicted but after that, those convictions were quashed,” he maintained.

Zardari said politicians committed mistakes in the past but now they have learnt from them. “PPP and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari are a threat for this government. PML-N also has a majority in Senate,” he said to a question.

Zardari predicted that year 2020 will be a better year for Pakistan. “The government is taking excessive loans from the Asian Development Bank, World Band and the IMF and these lenders may take over our embassies in future,” he said.