TANDO ALLAHYAR - A day after he lashed out at the military establishment and the Chief Justice of Pakistan, PPP Co-Chairman Ali Zardari said on Sunday that Pakistan Peoples' Party gets further stronger whenever it is victimised.

He blasted the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government by calling it an under-16 team and a puppet [of the military establishment]. He also wowed to soon dethrone PTI and force a midterm election, which he said would be won by his party.

The former president – who is deeply mired in corruption cases and the noose seems to be tightening around him – addressed a press conference and later delivered a speech at a party gathering in the Tando Allahyar district.

"They can finally start doing governance if they stop arresting people," he advised the central government of Prime Minister Imran Khan – who won the elections on the promise of bringing the corrupt to justice.

The PPP leader said that his party had accepted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death and didn't fight against it because it did not want institutions to be weakened.

"We still don't want them [military] to be weakened" because "there is another aggressive force" which they did not want to get stronger, he asserted.

He described the 'force' as one that possesses a "passionate ideology [junooni soch]" and said "that is why we always give them [military] leverage and space". He added: "They [military establishment] have the wrong impression that we give them space because we are fearful or wish to take power away from them.... We only want neutrality from them. We can take power on our own."

Midterm polls

Zardari vowed to rid the people of PTI government, work for the masses welfare and give them their due rights.

"We are getting indication of mid-term polls,” he said, claiming that the PPP would form the next government.

“We shall topple the government and as a result, I’m not afraid to get arrested; jail is my second home,” he said.

He said that politics is handled strategically but the PTI actually don’t know how to play the game. “They don't have understanding (running the government), we will rebuild the country once we get rid of them," he said.

“If people stand by me, we will send them [PTI government] packing and hold elections before time. We drove [General-President] Musharraf out in our tenure’s first 100 days.”

‘Incompetent puppet’

PPP leader slammed PTI government saying that a fake political entity is always created to counter organic political parties. “Let’s see what will be the result of this [new] game [of establishment],” he remarked.

Zardari said Imran Khan wouldn’t have been prime minister had there been free and fair polls. “PTI chief didn’t come into power through votes of the people, so he doesn’t care about them, he added.

“Those not willing to perform will never perform even when granted a hundred years,” he said.

PPP leader said that the Federal Board of Revenue is not able to collect taxes because revenues cannot be increased through coercion. He said the stock market is in tatters and so is the business situation all over Pakistan.

"They are stealing employment from people by destroying shops, quite contrary to their election promises. The government should have given an alternate space to the Empress Market shopkeepers before demolishing their shops," he said. PPP co-chairman alleged that their party leadership was not being given permission to visit Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

"Bilawal is told that he cannot go there [KP] but the very same day PM Imran is escorted to the area [for political activity]," he added.

18th Amendment

Asked about the 18th Amendment, Zardari said that the current government was one of "imbeciles" who lacked understanding.

The former president said instead of strengthening the centre, powers should be delegated to provinces. He alleged that he was being hounded by those who were not happy with the 18th amendment. "It's a government of blind people. They don't know that the country will get stronger by strong provinces," he said. PPP leader said that doing away with the 18th amendment won't be possible as all the provinces including Punjab would oppose it.

He said the 18th amendment bestows on provinces much larger share in power and administration but Sindh and Balochistan were still not getting their full share.

"Three chief ministers [of Punjab, KP and Balochistan] do not voice their concerns because they were inducted by the [central] government, but everyone does have their grievances", he said.

The former president said that only Parliament possesses the right to make decisions for the nation.

“Sindh runs the country; it pays 63 percent [of the total] tax of the country. Power should be with provinces, not the federation,” he went on to say.