MULTAN: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said he isn’t a part of any conspiracy against Nawaz till today but he can hatch a conspiracy against him tomorrow.
Addressing a mammoth gathering at Qila Qasim Bagh, he announced that he would form the next government at all costs and said Nawaz’s disqualification was written on the wall because he opted to go extreme in all matters. Allah disqualified [Nawaz] but the judges were the source of his disqualification, he remarked. He said Nawaz was having a fight with everyone and finally God imposed his justice because he was destroying the masses. “Neither the poor were happy, nor the peasants. Only Nawaz Sharif and his some friends were happy. Countries make progress when the poor become rich.”
Zardari described Yousaf Raza Gilani as a brave person and said he was removed and disqualified when he rejected the government [state] within the [state] government. It was a turning point and a war started but the PPP completed the five-year term, he added.
The escape of Nawaz and Ishaq Dar, he remarked, had proved their commitment to facing imprisonment. Zardari said, “Nawaz Sharif does not know the definition of China Pakistan Economic Corridor and he only knows that CPEC is a loaning agency but borrower would demand return of his loan.”
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the days of the younger Mian Sahib [Shahbaz Sharif] were numbered and he would have to accept [his role] in the Model Town killings, committing mega corruption in Multan Metro project and keeping the southern Punjab deprived of basic facilities.
Bilawal said Nawaz Sharif had been claiming to be committed to ideology without explaining what it was. Nawaz represented the ideology which he promised at the grave of a dictator Ziaul Haq. Nawaz’s ideology was aimed at weakening and dishonouring parliament, as he ran the government through remote, he added.
He said former president Asif Zardari made all possible efforts to strengthen democracy and parliament but Nawaz spoiled everything. “Mian Sahib! If democracy is fragile today, it is because of you. If people are suffering today, it is because of you,” Bilawal claimed.
He said the PML-N created hurdles in the creation of Seraiki province and promised that his party would create the province after coming into power.
Bilawal alleged that the budget allocated for horticulture in Lahore was many times more than south Punjab’s health budget. He said the PPP had laid down a network of health facilities across Sindh, which was unprecedented, providing free treatment to everyone.
The PPP chairman said the PML-N did not protect the interests of Seraiki region but his party would always stand with the Seraiki people. The PPP had awarded land ownership rights to peasants having 12 acres of land, he said and recalled that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto provided electricity to backward areas.
Criticising Imran Khan, he said “the Niazi Offshore Services” was using filthy language. “The Faizabad people may bear that filthy language but the PPP cannot tolerate it. Imran is a close aide to Maulana Samiul Haq,” he remarked, advising Imran to shun the politics of terrorism and jihad.
“I cannot say any word about Imran Khan but tell him one thing he needs to learn some political ethics. This is my first election and it would be the last election for Imran Khan,” he said. He said Imran was claiming to be the leader of youth but first he must tell his own age. “His KP chief minister is one of the oldest CMs in the country but the PPP has one of the youngest chief ministers in Sindh. Imran Khan has no political manifesto. Unemployment is the major issue of youth and the PPP is the only party that can provide jobs to youth.”
Bilawal announced his five-point agenda, which includes complete elimination of GST on seeds and fertilizers, fixing support price before sowing, water distribution in transparent way, transparent wheat bags distribution and protection of sugarcane growers.
“The PPP strongly believes that prosperity of farmers is the uplift and development of the country. The PPP would stop exploitation of small growers. The farmers have become tenants on their ancestral lands and PPP would eliminate this injustice,” he said.
Criticising the government’s agriculture policies, he said the main objective was to promote corporate farming. The PPP would end corporate farming, bringing cooperative farming and not allow playing with the fate of oppressed farmers, he added.
He said the PML-N had destroyed the rural society but the PPP would free farmers from the clutches of middlemen. Bilawal said he was feeling proud of addressing at a place where his grandfather Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his mother Shaheed Benazir Bhutto addressed the people of Multan. “This is the land of great mystic Khawaja Ghulam Farid and Shams Tabrez. Multan is the city of saints and mystics. The Seraiki language is spoken in all the four provinces of the country.”
He said the comrades of Multan played a vanguard role in resistance against dictatorships and tyrannies, adding that the Colony Textile workers sacrificed their lives against Zia when he ordered paramilitary forces to kill them.
Gilani, who also addressed the rally, said only the PPP was representing the downtrodden classes and the creation of a separate province was the sole solution to the region's backwardness.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said the country does not need a deaf and blind leadership which believes in abusing others.
