ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday gave a cautious response to the controversial remarks of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief on public reaction to a presumed military takeover in the country by simply saying he “disagreed” with Imran Khan.

“I agree with Mr Khan that the biggest threat to democracy today is the way of rule of [Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif. I disagree with Mr Khan on the reaction to any unconstitutional means to take over [the government],” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said in his first formal news conference in Islamabad.

He said the PPP knew how to fight dictatorship as it had a history of struggle against military rulers like Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Comparing the recent coup attempt in Turkey with the situation in Pakistan, Mr Khan, speaking at a rally in Azad Kashmir on Sunday, had said that people of Pakistan would celebrate and distribute sweets if the army took over the country.

Mr Khan’s statement has drawn criticism from different political parties and leaders with some of them alleging that the PTI chief has indirectly invited the military to assume power.

Flanked by senior members of the party, the PPP chairman warned the PML-N against its alleged plan to rig the Azad Kashmir elections, threatening to launch a massive protest movement against the government.

He claimed that the PPP had received reports that the PML-N government wanted to have “violent elections” in Azad Kashmir to disrupt polling process in the constituencies where its position was weak.

“If you rig the elections and carry out bloodbath in Azad Kashmir, you will forget the sit-in of 2014,” he said in an apparent reference to the 126-day sit-in staged by the PTI against the alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Replying to a question, Mr Bhutto-Zardari did not rule out the possibility of launching a joint protest movement against the government on the Panama Papers issue.

“Working relationship can be established with everyone,” he said, adding that if the PPP could adopt a reconciliation policy with the PML-N, “why can’t it have [the same policy] for the opposition [parties].”

The PPP chairman termed the Panamagate the biggest “corruption scandal” of the world, saying the inclusion of the names of the prime minister and his family members in the list of those having offshore companies had brought “embarrassment” to the people of Pakistan.

He said the prime minister had presented himself for accountability on the floor of parliament, but it could not happen. “Accountability will have to start from the prime minister, come what may,” he added.

The PPP leader said at a time when his mother Benazir Bhutto and father Asif Zardari were facing courts and jails, the Sharifs were busy setting up offshore companies and purchasing flats in London.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2016