I have come out, will visit all places: Zardari

Bilawal says policies of PM have become threat to Federation

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that when he became the president, some people wanted him to be the prime minister instead, adding that he became the president to send the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf home.

The former president said: "I have come out and will visit everywhere in Punjab." The former president was addressing party leaders in Lahore. “I will visit every village in Punjab and share meals with Jiyalas,” he said.

He said that he will thrash the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz with the party’s power and enthusiasm of Jiyalas. “I have come out, won’t allow RO elections in Punjab,” he said regarding the next general elections in 2018.

The former president said the party workers are his power and he is theirs. “Bilawal’s youth and my experience will pave way for victory,” he added.   Our correspondent adds: Chairman Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the policies of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have become a threat to the Federation by creating ripples among the federating units and pitting them against each other.

“Instead of adopting uniformed policies, Nawaz Sharif was trying to appease some specific circles in parts of Punjab. Approval of 97 gas provision projects worth Rs37 billion in particular areas amounts to axing the Federation and inciting the provinces against each other,” the PPP chairman said in a statement.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that even the historic city of Umerkot in Sindh province had not been provided gas despite payment by the provincial government to the gas company. The Nawaz Sharif government rejected several requests from the Sindh government for provision of domestic gas connections in its rural and urban areas. But all such requests were turned down on the pretext of moratorium. He said the PPP was the chain of the Federation and it would not allow Nawaz Sharif and his company to harm the Federation just for the sake of winning a few seats through his cronies and beneficiaries.

The PPP chairman said those who raised ethnic slogans for their political and personal mileage are out again to pose threats to the unity among the provinces by violating the Constitution, which protects the provinces' interests in clear terms.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further pointed out that it was Nawaz Sharif who threw away the key projects like Keti Bunder and Thar Coal in the late Nineties and terminated thousands of government employees from the smaller provinces, who were recruited by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto-led government.

He endorsed the letter from Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to the prime minister about the unconstitutional and illegal new gas projects and warned Nawaz Sharif that any overt or covert threat to the Pakistani Federation won’t be tolerated by the PPP and other democratic parties of the country.