LAHORE/TANDO ALLAH YAR    -    Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday claimed that the time has come to end the PTI government in order to save the country from further downfall.

While addressing party workers in Lahore on Thursday, he said Pakistan’s economy has been destroyed during the tenure of PM Imran in the last three-and-a-half years. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. They [PTI] had promised 5 million houses but they haven’t laid a single brick during this time,” he added. Shehbaz went on to say, “God forbid, if this government is not sent packing, we might see Pakistan’s Khuda Hafiz. Therefore, gear up,” the PML-N president said. This government was formed as a result of rigging, he said, adding, Quaid-e-Azam ‘must be turning in his grave.’

He said that he had revealed this three and a half year ago that the NAB-Niazi nexus exists. They have mortgaged the country to the IMF (International Monetary Fund, he added. Shehbaz said that PM Imran Khan destroyed those who gave him votes but the time to put up plaques had ended now. “Now, the time had come when the people will start grabbing them by their collars.”

On this occasion, PML-N leader and former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique ‘predicted’ PM Imran Khan’s political death in the near future.

Rafique urged PML-N and PPP to join hands and initiate a political struggle, as he claimed that Imran Khan was not a part of the political fraternity. The ex-federal minister said joining hands was the only option to take the country forward and noted that pulling each other’s legs would not help them progress.

“The state faces threats from within; we will have to think that we will be safe only if the country exists, so, do not play with its integrity,” the PML-N leader warned. Rafique advised the state to not patronise anyone and not fall when a group stages a sit-in.

Addressing the workers Khawaja Asif said the PTI-led government had tuned “politics into obscenity”, as he said Imran Khan “had established some new traditions”.

Meanwhile, Former President Asif Ali Zardari said that he would will set up tents in Lahore and sit there to protest against the federal government. Addressing party workers in Tando Allah Yar, the former president and Pakistan People’s Party leader said it was the time to counter the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI-led) federal government. He said he would challenge the PTI government by staying in Islamabad and Lahore.

Zardari said the PPP-led Sindh government and the federation had some thorny issues that would persist in future. He further said that they will continue to serve the masses under the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Aseefa Bhutto. Zardari said that PPP had always done public work. “Problems between federal government and us will persist,” he said.

Later, former President Asif Ali Zardari left Tando Allahyar for Nawabshah, where he will attend the funeral prayers of his cousin Aftab Zardari. Aftab Zardari died of a sudden cardiac arrest the other day.