Bilawal to lead, I will supervise electioneering: Zardari

LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would lead the election campaign under his supervision. On the other hand, Bilawal, in a statement, said how the people who were afraid of even mosquito would compete with the PPP.

Zardari, talking to the party leaders from the Faisalabad Division at the Bilawal House, said the PPP was chained in the last general elections but it would contest the next polls with full fervour and vision to serve the masses.

He said former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son was kidnapped, and he himself had to remain confined to the President House during the last elections. Besides, he added, Bilawal couldn’t participate in the election campaign due to his studies.

Zardari said elements who rigged the last polls should forget they would succeed in their designs as he was going to monitor the process himself. He and Bilawal would also visit every constituency of the country, he added.

Coming hard on his opponents, Zardari said a person had spoiled the political atmosphere whereas Nawaz Sharif was responsible for the worst economic crisis faced by the country.

He said Nawaz had caused a huge loss to the industry in Faisalabad and the country’s agricultural sector. On the other hand, former state minister Ayatullah Durrani, talking to the media outside the Bilawal House, said PTI Chairman Imran Khan “loses his senses in the evening due to cocaine usage”.

He said politicians shouldn’t forget morality but Imran, unfortunately, wasn’t following the principle, adding that he must keep in mind that politics could only be done while “you are in senses, not when you are out of senses”. The advisers of Imran should keep him in chains, Durrani remarked.

He also criticised Nawaz for putting democracy and national security at stake for his own interests, saying the ousted prime minister didn’t want powerful institutions and the country was passing through a critical phase due to confrontation with them.

Separately, another party leader, Chaudhry Manzur said the PPP had changed its policy and would respond to the criticism in a way similar to that of the PTI.Talking to the media, he said the PTI was a component of the PML-Q and Musharraf loyalists. NAB itself was a stain on the credibility of the institution, he added.