TANDO ALLAHYAR - Former president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday that government lacked political thinking and understanding.
Addressing media persons in Tando Allahyar, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government and said, “Pakistan cannot be run by a non-serious prime minister.”
“The country is being run by another non-serious prime minister. He won’t be able to manage it. If the government is in danger, then those who brought him in will support him,” he said. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had declared that he would put the entire opposition into prison. "Everyone knows that Asif Zardari has faced trials and tribulations but [the] question is whether Imran Khan can bear them," he said. "Imran Khan may put the opposition in jail," Zardari said, "but Khan’s turn would also come. As the saying goes, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’."
Zardari said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s inexperienced government will not be able to work and the next prime minister will send Imran Khan to jail. “The country is in a complicated situation and the government neither has political thinking nor understanding.”
“We had warned earlier as well that they [PTI] cannot run the government,” he added.
Taking a hit at PM Imran’s chicken plan, the former president said, “Buy chicken and sell their eggs and see if any satisfaction or happiness is achieved.”
The former president continued, "They are using the excuse of clauses to bring back one-unit politics. We have started a struggle against one-unit politics and our thinking is very different from the incumbent government." Zardari further lamented, "A joint investigation team (JIT) has sealed sugar mills and it is unfortunate that the poor have to bear the losses."
“Puppets brought in by elections will not be able to govern. Conditions are serious and the government cannot handle it,” he added. Zardari said the worst democratic government is better than the best dictatorship.
“This is why we are in Parliament, so other powers do not use our absence to manipulate the system. PTI is trying hard to break the system.” With reference to the ongoing case of fake bank accounts, Zardari said, “As long as we are alive they will try to put us in jail.”
He said PPP had been tested in the past too. “Many conspiracies were hatched against us. They want to test our strength, but we are testing their injustice.”
He said if his team and ministers were not on the right path, why did the people of Sindh elect them again?
Zardari said the PPP government had restored the 1973 Constitution to its original form when it formed the federal government. He added that his party would resist all moves to scrap the 18th Amendment.
Zardari also dismissed President Dr Arif Alvi’s statement on the 18th Amendment, saying that since he didn’t understand the meaning of defence, he had no right to talk about the amendment. The PPP leader also said that he would keep facing charges of money laundering, terming it an ongoing "war".
He said that he was being targeted and that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had faced the same, adding that the current government also had the same intentions.
"I can’t predict if there will be a national government or early polls, but one thing is for sure that they [PTI] can’t run it,” he said.
He added that Nawaz Sharif had introduced accountability laws and accountability courts to use them against him [Zardari], but Sharif was himself trapped by them.
Zardari was critical of the demolition of 50,000 shops in Karachi, which he said had left families without jobs. He said that alternate arrangements should have been made before the shops were demolished.
In a sarcastic comment, he said that he doesn't see any foreign policy but the PTI government certainly has a policy of demolishing a 300-year-old wall of the Governor House in Lahore.