LARKANA: PPP Parliamen­tarians president Asif Ali Zardari has ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition government with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after the coming general elections.

Addressing a public gathering held in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Wednesday to mark the 39th death anniversary of PPP founding leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he said the PPP could jointly form government with any other party but not with the PML-N. Mr Sharif should get ready for a long fight, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said only his party could fight against extremism and terrorism and asked the people to support him in the fight.

He said terrorism and extremism could not be uprooted with military action alone but doing so also required educational reforms.

Bilawal says 2018 elections will be first polls for him, last for Nawaz and Imran

“I remember the time when Nawaz Sharif’s government was facing a crisis and his ministers were getting nervous. We supported him and saved his government. But now our paths are separate,” Asif Zardari said.

Addressing Mr Sharif, he said “now you have been isolated” and ruled out any option of reconciliation with him.

Mr Zardari talked about gearing up mass contact in Punjab so much so that the PML-N would not succeed in the coming elections.

He alleged that through incorrect statements from Muslim countries, Mr Sharif had tried to isolate Pakistan.

He said while visiting Mochi Gate he [Zardari] had said that he could topple the PML-N government anytime and later proved his party’s strength by winning the election of Senate chairman.

Mr Sharif’s team was now criticising the PPP over it, he said and asked them what “you have done with us during the past 40 years”.

He said they [Nawaz Sharif] did not understand politics and better leave poor people now.

A major part of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s speech focu­sed on scathing criticism of his rivals — Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan — and projection of the PPP as the party of poor people.

He said 2018 elections would be the first polls for him and the last for Mr Sharif and Mr Khan.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said they had to wage war for the rights of labourers, peasants, youths and minorities.

He said the PPP would not allow political system to be rolled back and asked the participants of the gathering to join hands with him in constructing a new Pakistan.

He said Mr Sharif was confused as sometimes he criticised courts and then sent the prime minister (to the chief justice of Pakistan).

He said Nawaz Sharif was issuing threats to judges like Maula Jat, a popular and violent character of Punjabi films.

He said courts had not delivered justice to the PPP but it did not prompt the party to fight against them. “We respect these institutions,” he said. Mr Bhutto-Zardari said he was the heir of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while Nawaz Sharif was Gen Ziaul Haq’s heir, who had raised the flag of lie. And there was also Imran Khan who was commonly known as “Mr U-turn”, he added.

Mr Khan was the “lost brother of Taliban”, the PPP leader said and termed the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief “the extension of Nawaz Sharif”.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2018