ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader and a member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) Nawazada Ghazanfar Gul has criticised former president Asif Ali Zardari for his announcement to contest by-election without taking the party leadership into confidence.
Talking to The Nation, Gul said that Zardari did not take the party leadership and the CEC into confidence before making the announcement about his and his son and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s decision to contest the by-polls.
The former president made the announcement after hed addressed a public rally on December 27, 2016, to mark the death anniversary of former premier Benazir Bhuttoo.
“Asif Zardari’s announcement to contest the by-election for a National Assembly seat was a surprise for the CEC members as well as the top leadership,” he said.
Gul said that Zardari has turned the CEC into a platform just to seek support for his decisions as “most committee members lack the courage to disagree with the party leadership”.
Criticizing Zardari, he said that young PPP chairman was spearheading the party affair as captain and had also installed a competent team in Punjab.
“Bilawal Bhutto attracted party workers in Punjab and exhibited a great show in Lahore on the occasion of the PPP’s Foundation Day,” he said adding that the workers from across the country responded to the chairman and the party leadership had requested him to visit districts to engage party’s local leaders and workers ahead of the next general election.
Interestingly, he said, the party did not post pictures of Zardari along with Zaulifqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto on stages during celebrations in connection with the party’s Foundation Day.
Gul said that when Bilawal started managing the party affairs only then Zardari decided to return to the country.
“Zardari’s arrival and the surprise announcement is a clear indication that he does not want to relinquish the control over the party and would not allow Bilawal to criticise the government,” he said.
“Bilawal grilled the Punjab leadership on local issues and had asked the Punjab chief minister to fulfil his promises he made to the masses during the previous electioneering campaigns,” he said.
“The young chairman has changed his refrain against the government and avoided giving anti-government statements during his father’s stay in Pakistan”, he said.
Responding to a question, Gul said that Zardari was focusing the next elections and wanted to become the president again. He said that Zardari was not a popular leader but a king of reconciliation.
Talking to The Nation, PPP Secretary General and former Senate chairman Syed Nayyar Bokhari rejected the allegations of Gul and said that the party leadership shared details about Zardari’s decision to contest the by-election.
He said that the party chairman (Bilawal) was taking decisions independently at every level and the former president has no influence on him.
Bokhari said that Gul was speaking against the party leadership after he was not “accommodated” by the party. “Gul has even failed to manage a rift in his family and even his brother joined another political party,” he said.