Daily Times

Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is following in the footsteps of Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf and maintained that the incumbent government has ruined the national consensus in the country.

Speaking to PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira on the coronavirus crisis and the evolving political situation in the country, Zardari criticised the government, saying that it wants to curtail the constitutional and financial powers of provinces. “This government is fighting the opposition instead of fighting coronavirus,” he said. Referring to PPP’s past tenure, the former president stated that when he[Asif Ali Zardari] came to power in 2008, the country was a victim of terrorism and division. “We conducted the Swat operation through national consensus and brought peace [throughout the country],” the former president asserted.

‘PPP playing the Sindh card’

The PPP and the PTI have been trading barbs over the past few weeks. Yesterday, after being criticised for the second consecutive day by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Parliament House, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had demanded that the foreign minister either withdraw his statement against PPP or resign from his position. The foreign minister had earlier addressed a session of the Senate, where he spoke at length about PPP’s style of governance and the participation of the province in national decision-making. FM Qureshi had said that the PPP was focused on only provincial politics rather than thinking for the entire country. He also said that it was not true that the federal government had abandoned Sindh. In reaction to Qureshi’s criticism, Bilawal had said that the minister had also accused him of using the “Sindh card”. Bilawal said that he had been raising his voice for issues pertaining to the provinces, without any such intention in mind. Responding to Qureshi’s comments that the PTI will make inroads in Sindh as it did in other provinces such as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Bilawal had said: “What sort of politics is this? What do you mean you will prove your political mettle in Sindh?” He had said that politicking of this nature damages the federation and it goes against national unity.