SUKKUR: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah has said that Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will ultimately succeed him after becoming an MNA in the by-election as per the plan announced at Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary programme on Tuesday.

“When he will become the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, I will serve him as his adviser like a PPP worker,” Mr Shah told the media at the Zero Point in old Sukkur on Wednesday evening.

Responding to various questions about why the interior minister was not being removed despite allegations of inefficiency being levelled against him, Mr Shah observed that [Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif actually feared Chaudhry Nisar.

“A lack of trust between them is remarkably felt, however,” he claimed, adding that it was something significant to note.

In this context, the senior PPP leader pointed out that while the National Accountability Bureau chief happened to be the choice of the prime minister, Chaudhry Nisar was critical of him.

“Appointing a NAB chairman is the prerogative of prime minister but the point to be noted is that he [the PM] had only seconded the appointment,” said Mr Shah.

Contradiction between the statements of the prime minister and those of his cabinet [interior] minister was casting a negative impact on governance, he added.

Commenting on the findings of the judicial commission on the Quetta carnage, Khurshid Shah said that it [the report] was an eye-opener.

“People no more have confidence in the PML-N after the report emerged,” he said.

The opposition leader also observed that the PML-N felt strangled over Panamagate and a lot of other corruption scams, including Nandipur and other power projects.

“We will continue to raise our voice against the PML-N government’s wrongdoings over the last four years but we do not want democracy to derail,” Mr Shah said.

He said the PPP would maintain pressure on the government in the elected houses and outside so as to make it meet its four demands.

“They [the demands] are not for PPP’s gain but aimed at the good of the masses,” he stressed.

In reply to a question, Mr Shah said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would start addressing public meetings as part of the party’s mass mobilisation drive after January 2017.

Besides Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari would also contest in the 2018 general elections, he said.

Published in Dawn December 29th, 2016