LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari criticised both of his political rivals – Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan – terming them “paper tiger” and “moafi (apology) Khan”, respectively, at a meeting with PPP workers here on Thursday.

The PPP leader, who has been camping in the Punjab capital for the last two weeks, targeted the ousted prime minister saying “The paper tiger has turned into a frightened tomcat, sitting in London”.

Claiming credit for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the former president said Nawaz could not realise the core objective of the project. He said he (as Pakistan’s president) had linked the project with barter trade and had entered into agreements with China, Sri Lanka, Iran and Jordan in this respect. He said his approach to the CPEC would have benefited more the local industrial and agriculture sectors.

He lamented that the PML-N government secured costlier loans at 7 to 8 per cent interest rate from China, while the PPP government had got the credit facility at just 1-0.5pc.

He also accused the government of losing a chance to export sugar worth $1.5bn to China.

The PPP leader chided the PTI chairman, saying Imran had no plans except criticising others.

He taunted Imran by saying that he used ‘Khan’ as surname in cricket but for setting up offshore companies he used the title of ‘Niazi’.

He said “deserter Niazi” had become “moafi Khan” by first tendering an apology to the then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and now to the Election Commission (in contempt of court proceedings).

Questioning Imran’s source of income, the PPP leader alleged the PTI chairman was living on (the income of) Shaukat Khanum Hospital, land for which had been donated by Nawaz and duty-free import of machinery allowed by Benazir Bhutto.

He also questioned the use of the cancer treatment facility for “petty politics” and said there were others who too set up trust hospitals but, unlike Imran, did not made their social welfare work as a basis for their politics.

Alluding to PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai’s allegations of sexual harassment against PTI chief, Mr Zardari said a person “without any moral moorings” could not build a new Pakistan as his own party’s women members were saying “Me Too” -- a reference to the hashtag used by Hollywood victims of sexual harassment to expose a film director through social media.

In a bid to boost morale of the workers, he said the PPP had got the services of three leaders (besides himself) to look after the 2018 vote. Elaborating, he said his younger daughter Aseefa, along with her paternal aunt Faryal Talpur, would cover Sindh, while he with son Bilawal would oversee the party’s election campaign in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Recalling the financial help the PPP government had extended to the downtrodden through Waseela-i-Rozgar and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) initiatives, he announced that the party, if came into power again, would focus on the stitching sector to make it a cottage industry to the benefit of poor women like in Bangladesh.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2017