Mutiny orchestrated in Punjab bureaucracy: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is now reaping what he has sown.

Addressing a press conference here Friday at Zardari House, he criticised Nawaz Sharif for his rhetoric against the institutions, saying that weakening of the institutions would only weaken the country.

“Nawaz Sharif is targeting the institutions of the country with his rhetoric and provoking people against them,” he added.

Other party leaders including PPP Secretary General Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman, PPP Punjab Secretary General Chaudhry Manzoor, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Nadeem Afzal Chan were also present on the occasion.

Zardari blamed the Punjab government for the current ‘rebellion’ in the Punjab bureaucracy after the arrest of former director general (DG) Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema, though he did not name anyone. He said rebellion is being created in Punjab bureaucracy as some people think that after Mian Sahib, they would also face the consequences.

He said if the institutions weaken, then the examples of Afghanistan should be kept in mind where all institutions had been destroyed and the allied forces, despite spending trillions of dollars, are not able to establish the army of Afghanistan.

He said when Justice Qayyum awarded sentence to him, a leaked voice tape later on proved that Shahbaz Sharif was dictating the judge for awarding him jail term.

“But we did not go against the institutions and even did not ridicule the institutions and got relief from there,” he added.

To a question about the “ouster” of PML-N from Senate elections, Zardari did not agree with the questioner, saying that the PML-N outcry of being out from the Senate election is not correct as their candidates are in the race to contest the Senate elections but as independent candidates.

About the motion to put Pakistan on Financial Action Task Force, the former president said it was a failure of the government. He said it was the government's incompetence over the four years which allowed India to take advantage. He said the PPP had been asking the government for the last four years to appoint a full-fledged foreign minister to bring the country out of diplomatic isolation.

In reply to a question, he said Nawaz Sharif did not do anything without commission. He did not give due share to other provinces: Pakhtuns, Baloch and Sindhis but only to Lahore, as other areas of Punjab are also neglected.

About sending Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia, Zardari defended the government decision, saying that he could not oppose the decision because he could not "let down the Custodian of the Holy Ka’aba", and it was the legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government, which continues in successive governments. “1,600 soldiers could not win a war, they can only train people," he said.