ISLAMABAD - Former president Asif Ali Zardari has told his close aides that the Pakistan People’s Party will stand by the institutions amid ousted premier Nawaz Sharif’s struggle to prove his innocence in the corruption references.
Senior PPP leaders who met Zardari here told The Nation, that the party would not support “mudslinging” by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against state institutions.
The PML-N, a senior PPP leader said “can go as far as they like” but the PPP would not support such a “childish attitude”.
Zardari, he said, stood with democracy and the institutions.
“He has asked us to concentrate on general elections and let the PML-N do the ‘dirty work’ of hurling allegations against the state institutions. Nawaz Sharif should face cases rather than shifting the blame. The PPP acknowledges the significance of all institutions for the country,” the PPP leader added, quoting the former president.
Another PPP leader who met Zardari said the former president believed both Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief, Imran Khan, had been exposed before the nation.
“Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan do not have any political future. Both are hoodwinking the nation. They are telling lies to the people,” he quoted Zardari as saying.
Meanwhile, on Monday, PPP Senator Aajiz Dhamrah asked Imran Khan not to “become a joker” for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
In a statement, Dhamrah said Khan should keep in mind that the killers of Benazir Bhutto would be apprehended and convicted by the court of law.
Reacting to Imran Khan’s speech at Mandi Bahauddin, the senator said that the PTI chief had been further exposed by speaking in support of General Musharraf’s “nonsense”.
“People are aware that [the] PTI is the political wing of Taliban and Imran Khan is an agent of Taliban. If Imran Khan gets a chance he would sell the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Taliban. Imran Khan is a foot soldier of the ideology, which killed Benazir Bhutto,” he alleged.
Senator Dhamrah further alleged that Imran Khan had promoted intolerance and violence in politics and society. “Imran Khan embezzled the donation money meant for hospital and lives a lavish life with that money. How a person without a known source of income can build Bani Gala palace on 400 acres of land,” the lawmaker questioned.