F.P. Report
KARACHI: Asserting that there was a need to properly comprehend the statement given by former president Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with a private news channel a few days ago, senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah said on Monday that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was the party’s candidate for the seat of prime minister.
Taking to the media outside an accountability court in Sukkur, he said that it was the PPP’s CEC that took decisions. “I have a question for former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and that is whether he was still giving respect to the right to vote as he had been laying stress on it for the last four years.
Khurshid asked Nawaz and other PML-N leaders as to why they were criticizing the PTI when they themselves said that the country’s ‘establishment’ was supporting them. “The establishment belongs to the nation,” he said, and added, “Even former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan used to say that he enjoyed the establishment’s support.”
Responding to a question, the PPP leader said that he and other party leaders were going to Quetta not to join any other political party, but to hold a public gathering on the eve of the PPP’s 56th ‘Yaume Tasees’ (foundation day).
Khurshid claimed that the PPP had always kept the promises it had made to the people.
Listing the achievements of the PPP governments, he said that a sense of deprivation found in the people of smaller provinces was eliminated through the 18th Amendment. “So much so that people now say that had the amendment been introduced prior to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the debacle would not have happened,” he added.
Former opposition leader said that Karachi belonged to all and its development meant the development of the entire country. “It was during the tenure of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) that the port city got Pakistan Steel Mills and highways were built.
He further said that free and fair elections were a challenge for the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Dhamra says all propaganda against PPP to fail
Also on Monday, another PPP leader Aajiz Dhamrah said that no matter how much propaganda was done, nobody could take away the credit from the party for its achievements.
He claimed that the public gathering to be held in Quetta on the eve of its foundation day would be historic.
Referring to Nawaz Sharif, Dhamrah said that there was a man who was asking for a level playing field before landing in Pakistan. “Soon he will be heard complaining, “Mujhe Kyun Bulaya’,” he said, adding, “Nobody should forget that the former prime minister is still disqualified.”
