Asif Zardari asks PM Shehbaz to hold talks with Opposition

ISLAMABAD: Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has urged Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif to hold talks with opposition party – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), saying that the nation cannot afford any odd situation, ARY News reported on Monday.

“I will request PM Shehbaz Sharif to hold talks with the opposition and set no conditions before they begin talks,” Asif Zardari said while addressing the Convention on the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the 1973 Constitution.

The PPP co-Chairman also asked the opposition to call on Shehbaz Sharif for talks “as he is the prime minister”.

“We cannot afford any odd situation now. The PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) is now approaching us for dialogue, but its chief wants such decisions which are in his favour,” he added.

He claimed that the PTI was paying Rs 30,000 each to its workers and said he knew about its sources of funding. The PTI, he said, had hired political workers, social media activists and journalists to continue its propaganda against the country and institutions.

Even PTI Chairman Imran Khan admitted that he had used the funds donated by the public for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, for his political purposes, which was a severe violation of the political parties’ law, he added.

“We will never bow to the violation of law; we will fight on every front to safeguard the Constitution and the country,” he vowed.

“We had created Pakistan and we will put it back on path of development. The country has huge potential to grow as it produces commodities which are in great demand at international level,” he added.

The former president said the PPP had never used religion for political objectives and would not do so in the future too. Its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, however, was ousted from government in sheer violation of the Constitution and also using the religion card, he added.

Asif Zardari said being a student of history, he was witness to the key events the country had gone through.

The former president lamented that fake cases had been registered against him in the past for political reasons, but no corruption allegations were proved against him.

He said the Constitution would reign supreme and nobody would be allowed to hold it in abeyance. “The PPP had played its role in safeguarding the Constitution and will continue doing so in future also. The democracy had been weakened over the years but we will make it strong.”

He said, “We talked about the rights of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during our government’s tenure and unanimously got passed the 18th Constitutional Amendment and approved the NFC (National Finance Commission) Award giving provincial autonomy to the federating units.”

Unfortunately, he said, the neighboring country was involved in terrorist activities in Balochistan but the only solution for bringing back peace to the province was dialogue. “We will continue to resolve their problems through talks.”

Citing the initiatives taken during the last PPP government, Asif Zardari said he had signed an agreement for the swap of currency with five countries but unfortunately it could not continue.

He had also inked an agreement with China for the development of Gwadar Port, he added.