LAHORE - Former President and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that 18th constitutional amendment is the actual problem for the PTI government at the moment.

Zardari claimed he was being targeted from “all sides” and his friends were being taken into custody as part of a larger conspiracy to reverse the 18th Amendment. The ruling party neither had the mandate to amend it nor the vision and capacity to do so, he told the media at a convention organised at a local hotel here on Saturday.

Zardari said Punjab being the largest province in terms of population was receiving maximum funds and was the leading beneficiary of the 18th Amendment. Other provinces would not allow erasing this amendment, he added.

“I have understood that they (PTI) have a problem with 18th constitutional amendment… [and] they have problem with me and my friends,” he told reporters at the convention held by Peoples Lawyers Forum. “They are after my friends. If I make a call to any of my friends he is picked up,” the PPP leader alleged. He rebuffed government claims that opposition parties including PPP were seeking an NRO (from the power that be).

The former president, who was on a four-day visit to the city, also said it was PPP which acted with a thought to provide for the people of Balochistan and gave identity to the Pashtun. Such thinking was missing in the sitting government, he added.

To a question, he said his party was not interested in ending the PTI rule. “I don’t wish to invite problems for myself by throwing out the PTI government.” He however claimed that efforts were made to overthrow the PPP government in Sindh.

In the background of NAB action against the industrial units of his friends, he said, attacks on them were started before the election but at that time he failed to understand that it was he who was the actual target. He claimed that business accounts of his friends were being dubbed as benami and fake accounts.

“The PTI is doing worse than what has been done in the dictatorial era,” he alleged, advising the rulers to take sense. He said what the PTI sows today, it will reap it tomorrow.

When asked about the possibility of his arrest in the mega money laundering scam wherein he and his sister are among the accused, the former President said if it happened, it would not be anything new. “I spent five years in jail during Musharraf period.”

To a question about government claims that everyone in the opposition is hankering after NRO to escape NAB action, he posed, “Why should I seek NRO. I did not seek NRO even from Pervez Musharraf and the one given at that time was out of Musharraf’s choice and not his.” He said he faced cases in the past and could do it again.

To a question he rejected the notion that he and Nawaz Sharif had become necessity of each other in the existing situation.

Opposition parties are in contact with each other through JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman, who has convened an APC. Both PPP and PML-N have agreed to participate in it whenever it is held.

Asked to comment on the alleged arrival of an Israeli jet in Pakistan, the former president expressed his ignorance about it. He however did not rule out the possibility of this happening.

The PPP co-chairperson appreciated growing friendship of Pakistan with Saudi Arabia and China and said they were fast friends of Pakistan. The PPP, particularly Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, shared the role in strengthening bonds of friendship with both these countries, he added.

He expressed pleasure over the bailout package from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. “Saudi Arabia has always helped us [in hour of need],” he remarked. He would not have any objection to the bailout if burden on the poor was alleviated by that, he added.

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad, the PPP leader, also addressed the convention. He said Shah Mehmood Qureshi was deceiving the people of southern Punjab while Aleem Khan was doing the same in central Punjab.

“What has happened in South Punjab despite the tall claims [of PTI]?” he asked. It was PPP who got approved a resolution from the national assembly about creation of province comprising southern Punjab, he said.

Manzoor came down hard on Aleem Khan and he called him chief of land grabbers. “Aleem Khan must think of him before criticising the PPP leadership,” he said.

Other leaders of the party and lawyers leader also spoke on the occasion.