Zardari will stay in Pakistan, asserts PPP leader

LONDON: A senior PPP leader has said that the newly elected government of PML-N has made the PPP leadership vulnerable by withdrawing security from the Zardari House in Islamabad.
Chaudhry Riaz, former Special Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah in the last PPP government, said that around 200 security personals used to provide security but now that number has been slashed to 40. “A situation is being created deliberately to make the PPP leadership feel insecure and to encourage the enemies of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s legacy,” Riaz said who is in London these days and worked with Benazir Bhutto closely during her days in exile in London.
He said rumours that President Zardari will not live in Pakistan after completing his term as president on September 8 due to security threats and fears about the reopening of graft cases will fall flat soon.
“Those who know President Zardari shall also know that he is not the one who will cut and run. Zardari stayed with his people and challenged the worst of state torture and persecutions but didn’t bow before the forces of oppression. These are challenging times and our enemies want to spread rumours and propaganda against us but President Zardari will stay in Pakistan and will mainly live in Lahore,” said Chaudhry Riaz.
He said that lives of Bhutto family members and their supporters have always been unsafe but “that’s the cost we pay for our commitment to a strong and democratic Pakistan.”He said that there’s no chance that the Swiss graft cases will be reopened as it will be in violation of the law of Pakistan as well as Switzerland. “Those cases were politically motivated and Pakistani state’s resources were used to create evidence against Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. The current government can try as much as can but it must keep in mind that the PPP’s diehard workers will stand by their leadership under any circumstances.
He said that the recent killing of Bilal Sheikh showed that there are powerful enemies of the PPP who can go to any limit to fulfill their designs but “like always, we will sacrifice our lives whenever necessary but we will carry on with the mission given to us by ZA Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.”