One more push will send rulers home: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari Sunday said the current ‘incompetent’ rulers had collapsed under their own burden, needing just one more push to be sent home packing.

Talking to the PPP Punjab Secretary General Chaudhry Manzoor over the phone, Zardari said he’d already said that the current ‘selected’ rulers will collapse under their own burden. “Now they have fallen and need just one more push to send this government packing home. We will send them home together with the Pakistan Democratic Alliance,” he added.

“These ‘incompetent’ rulers have put the country’s economic growth into negative,” he said. He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was united and will attack the government from all sides, utilising all possible constitutional options.

“Sending this incompetent selected government is the need of the hour, as it could make a huge blunder landing the country in grave danger,” he said. He said all possible ways and means would be used to send the current government home. “Next few months are crucial for the country’s future politics and we will not allow this government to hide behind the coronavirus,” he said.

Zardari said the government failed in procuring vaccine and giving relief to the people in the days of coronavirus apart from Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

He said despite the international financial crisis in 2008, the PPP government raised the country’s export from $19 billion to $25 billion, doubled revenue and raised the salaries of government employees by 125 percent and pension by 100 percent.

Meanwhile, responding to the PDM leaders’ criticism, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Sunday said the government will defeat the PDM if it tabled a no-confidence motion, as had been proposed by the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Talking to the media after attending the Chehlam ceremony of a religious leader in Multan, he said Bilawal had acknowledged the democratically elected government by proposing a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“Now, Bilawal should shun the term ‘selected’ and call him the elected PM. No-confidence motion is part of the Constitution,” he said. He said the ‘unnatural’ PDM alliance lacked unity and had collapsed adding that the JUI-F had also divided into groups.

Responding to a question about Justice (R) Azmat Saeed’s election as Chairman Broadsheet Probe Committee, Qureshi remarked that the opposition would not agree on any name. He said if the opposition had clean hands, then it should not worry.

“The PTI government has nothing to do with the Broadsheet agreement or its suspension, he said, adding that PM Imran Khan wanted an inquiry to make things clear. About submission of the party’s asset details to the Election Commission, Qureshi said the PTI had handed a list of 40,000 donors over to the Commission.

Now, he said, the PPP and PML-N should also submit details of their donors to the ECP,” Qureshi said. He said the PDM was a caravan without destination, as earlier it was talking about resigning from assemblies, then holding long march and now moving a no-confidence motion.

He said PDM was bound to fail, as it was based on personal interests. “The leadership of PML-N cannot mislead the masses, as it stands exposed before the people.” Qureshi maintained the government will complete its constitutional term, leaving the opposition disappointed. He said the government will not give NRO to looters and they will have to face strict accountability.

Meanwhile, Minister for Defense Pervaiz Khattak said the PDM component parties lacked unity in their ranks and people will soon witness dismemberment of this heterogeneous alliance. He was addressing a ceremony held in Nowshera.

Khattak said rifts and suspicion in the PDM will cause its dissolution for good. He said Maryam Nawaz, Fazlur Rehman and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were trying to destabilise the government through unconstitutional means but all their efforts will fail.

He said people will not elect those who brought the country to the brink of disaster just to fulfill their ulterior motives. He said the government was capable and fully prepared to stave off the opposition’s ambitions.

“Elements that looted the public money with impunity will be made accountable to public for their misdeeds and they will not be pardoned,” he said. He said the hue and cry of the opposition about the Senate elections was beyond understanding adding that the opposition will also face defeat in the elections.

Meanwhile, Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan Sunday reiterated firm resolve of the government to hold accountability of all those who looted the national wealth. “The government believes in across-the-board accountability and it has started the process from top to bottom, which will be taken to its logical end without compromise,” he said while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating gas and electricity projects in Thatthu village of Hassan Abdal.

The minister said the government will complete its five-year democratic term, and the PDM leaders were destined to face jail due to their corrupt practices.

He said it was unfortunate that the opposition parties, during their 35 years in government, played havoc with the state departments and organizations, including Pakistan International Airlines, by committing great administrative irregularities and financial corruption.