Chinese know well about corruption in CPEC projects: Zardari

PESHAWAR: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that the Chinese knew well about corruption in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. He claimed that the show of Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan had ended. He maintained that his party would not enter into an alliance with any political party in the upcoming general election.

Talking to reporters at a dinner at the residence of PPP provincial president Humayun Khan, he recalled that his workers had not forgiven him even today for the alliance he made with the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for forming the previous provincial government. He said that injustice was done with the PPP workers in the province in the ANP-led coalition government in which the PPP was a junior partner.

Zardari, who is on a visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also recalled that they were not allowed to reach out to voters in the 2013 general elections. "I had not campaigned for my party in that election. This time I have started campaigning now that the present government is in its last year in office. We are hopeful of victory and would form the next government," he declared.

He said that his workers would not leave the polling booths till the announcement of election results. "If Nawaz Sharif tried to rig the elections, our party workers would besiege the polling stations," he warned.

Regarding the PanamaLeaks, the PPP leader said that two judges of the Supreme Court had given their decision while the remaining three had not declared Nawaz Sharif innocent but asked for further investigation through a joint investigation team. When asked about the contradictory statements of his party leaders on the PanamaLeaks issue, Zardari said that every PPP leader might have a personal view as well. He said he had not supported Nawaz Sharif but had backed parliament and the democratic process for the better future of the country.

Zardari said Pakistan's future was bright. "We need to have a positive approach. For example, some people consider the increasing population as a liability while others consider it an asset," he argued.

He recalled that he gave identity and power to the Pakhtuns and the National Finance Commission empowered the provinces. "These were the rights of the people. I will complete the remaining work on the mega projects started by my government," he added.

Supporting merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said the next PPP government would solve this and all other problems and increase the funds, salaries and benefits of all the government employees.

Zardari recalled that the Americans and Indians were also present in Afghanistan when Pakistan was ruled by the PPP government, but the government then was not making irresponsible decisions or taking the country towards isolation.

He said his party workers were being harassed on various pretexts but they had to face the situation. Zardari said that in the past, he made alliances with political parties because he had to restore the 1973 Constitution, transfer power from the President House to parliament and then to the provinces. "I did all this and more," he maintained.

When asked as to why he had started the election campaign a year before the polls, he said he waited for four years and observed that not a single problem of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was solved.

He said the Pakhtuns were living under compulsion in Karachi to earn livelihood, but the PTI leaders could not generate jobs for them in their native Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Zardari claimed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lost confidence of both, the people and parliament.