Asif Zardari will be PPP’s candidate for president slot: Bilawal

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday announced that co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari will be party’s candidate for president slot, emphasising that constitutional positions were their right, ARY News reported.

Addressing a press conference following two-day-long Central Executive Committee meeting, the PPP chairman said that he would like to see his father Asif Ali Zardari become the president.

“I am not saying this because he is my father. I am saying this because the country is in a huge crisis at the moment and if anyone can douse this fire, it is Asif Ali Zardari,” Bilawal Bhutto said.

The former foreign minister said the constitutional positions were PPP’s right and they will field candidates for president, Senate Chairman and National Assembly (NA) speaker.

Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto ruled out the possibility of becoming part of any coalition government, saying that his party would vote for prime minister candidate of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) but sit in opposition.

“The PPP has decided that we are unable or not in a position to join federal government ourselves, nor are we interested in taking ministries in such a setup,” the party chairman said while addressing a press conference.

Bilawal Bhutto acknowledged that the reality was that his party does not have a mandate to form a government in the Centre. “Due to this, I will not be putting myself forward for the candidacy of the prime minister of Pakistan,” he said, noting that PML-N and the independents have greater numbers.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had refused to form a coalition with the PPP which left the PML-N as the only party that had invited the PPP to join the government.

“We don’t want to see chaos in the country or perpetual crisis in the country,” the PPP chairman said, adding that his party decided to support the PML-N’s candidate for the premiership to ensure political instability.

A day earlier, it was reported that senior PPP leadership advised party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari against forming a coalition government with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and sitting in opposition.

Sources told ARY News that majority of the committee members proposed to sit in opposition, rather than forming a coalition government. Ostensibly, a strong coalition government will not be formed, the participants suggested.

Read More: Senior PPP leadership advises Bilawal, Zardari to ‘sit in opposition’

The CEC members were of the view that PPP should sit in the opposition by respecting the mandate of independent candidates – who according to ECP election 2024 results were in lead in National Assembly (NA).

The participants dubbed making PPP’s prime minister a ‘political loss’, sources claimed, adding that some also proposed to hold talks with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) instead of PML-N.