MARDAN: Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has accused the federal government of snatching the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and promised that if elected his party would make sure that the people of KP reaped maximum benefits from the project.

The former president arrived in Mardan on Monday ahead of the PPP’s public gathering at the railway ground on the Mardan-Nowshera Road.

He was accompanied by former senate chairman Syed Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, Senator Farhatullah Babar, former MNA Nawaz Khokar, Asma Alamgir, Senator Khanzada Khan and Khawaja Muhammad Khan Hoti, PPP’s KP provincial president.

According to sources, Mr Zardari’s four-day visit to various districts in KP comes in response to complaints from the PPP provincial leadership about lacklustre mobilisation among the grass roots of the party. Also, several PPP workers from KP complained that the PPP provincial president preferred to stay in Islamabad rather than spend time mobilising the party workers in the province.

PPP co-chairperson claims federal govt snatched CPEC from KP

Speaking to party activists, Mr Zardari criticised the ‘anti-Pakhtun’ policies of the Centre. He lashed out at the federal government for blocking the identity cards of thousands of Pakhtuns, and added: “I am holding the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led regime responsible for increasing Pakhtuns’ miseries and difficulties manifold.”

He recalled that it was the PPP government which had renamed the North-West Frontier Province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and reclaimed the Pakhtun identity for its citizens. He also claimed credit for issuing the National Financial Commission Award and launching the Benazir Income Support Programme for the poor. He promised to double the funds for the BISP if his party came into power in the coming polls.

The PPP co-chairperson said it was the dream of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and promised that the PPP would fulfil her dream if it came to power in the next general elections.

“The Pakistan Peoples Party is a party of poor people...we will carry our work for the uplift and prosperity of the common man,” he vowed.

He claimed that the previous PPP government had established a university in Mardan and provided funds to it.

Mr Zardari also criticised Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan for what he described as the failed policies of his KP provincial government. He rejected a perception that Mr Khan was a leader of the youth and exclaimed: “Imran Khan is four years older than me.”

Pointing towards his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the PPP chairperson, Mr Zardari said that he was the true leader of the youth.

He pointed out that even though Mr Khan prided himself on being a Pakhtun, he couldn’t even speak Pashto.

He spoke of the irony of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Mr Khan distributing sweets following the Panama Papers verdict, saying the judgement favoured neither of them.

None of the five judges in the Panama Papes case had given a clean chit to the prime minister or his family members, he said, rather the judges themselves had raised slogan of “Go Nawaz, go”.

Reiterating his demand for the PM’s resignation, Mr Zardari warned that otherwise, Mr Sharif would have to face a massive movement by the PPP.

“In our next government, we will constitute or introduce a system to raise the salaries of employees...whenever there is inflation in the country, their salaries will automatically increase,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2017