Zardari threatens to approach court if process not completed in a week

Electoral reforms

Says Nawaz running country like ‘Mughal empire’

PESHAWAR: Calling for the need to take the political parties into confidence, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari warned on Saturday that he would take the issue to the court if the parliamentary committee didn’t complete the process of electoral reforms within one week.

He recalled that the parliamentary committee members had assured him that the  process would be completed in a week's time.

Zardari was speaking at a meeting of party leaders at the residence of PPP provincial President Humayun Khan.

The party’s former and sitting parliamentarians, including senators, MNAs and MPAs along with the PPP office-bearers were present on the occasion.

Zardari asserted that his party accepted the results of the 2013 general election for the sake of democracy and continuity of the democratic setup.

Urging party leaders to forge unity in their ranks and woo the dissidents, he said, “We have to win the upcoming general election.”

The PPP leader came down hard on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership and accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of running the country like the ‘Mughal empire’. “We will make the king accountable,” he said while referring to the prime minister.

Ridiculing Nawaz Sharif, he said the country was being ruled by a ‘king’ who didn’t know his country’s borders.

“This king cannot protect the country’s borders,” he remarked.

Zardari said the PPP had always fought against undemocratic forces and it would do so in the future as well. He said the federal government was borrowing heavily and this policy had caused inflation and made life more difficult for the common man.

Earlier, Zardari arrived in Peshawar on a four-day visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and spent a busy day in the provincial capital.

The former President of Pakistan is visiting KP in a bid to reinvigorate PPP and mobilise the generally demoralized party workers after the PPP's crushing defeat in the province in the 2013 general election.

He is hoping to rope in some political stalwarts and newcomers to the PPP in time for the 2018 polls so that the party is able to do better this time.

During the visit, Zardari visited the residences of late PPP leader Iftikhar Khan Jhagra and that of Awami National Party’s Haji Mohammad Adeel to offer condolences on their deaths to their families.

He remained with them for some time and offered fateha for the departed souls.

Extending sympathies to the families of Iftikhar Jhagra and Haji Adeel, he said the services of the two leaders for the cause of democracy would always be remembered.

The co-chairman also held a meeting with PPP provincial office-bearers and attended a dinner at the residence of former PPP provincial president Anwar Saifullah Khan.

Speaking on the occasion, Zardari asserted that the PPP would emerge victorious in the coming election with the support of the masses and the determination of the party workers.

Meanwhile, former PPP MNA Noor Alam Khan protested against the party's provincial leadership for not taking him into confidence before Zardari's visit.

Talking to reporters, he announced a boycott of the visit by the party co-chairman said and he would not contest the next general election on the PPP ticket.   Noor Alam Khan had been elected MNA from rural Peshawar in the 2008 general election.