LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Monday rejected the statement being attributed to party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari in which he was reported to have said by a section of the electronic media that he had been duped by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif into giving a hard-hitting statement against the army.

A PPP spokesperson said Mr Zardari neither hosted any media team, nor gave any statement related to the disqualified prime minister as being reported by some private TV channels. He deplored the media was not broadcasting the party version.

Quoting sources, the TV channels claimed that Mr Zardari termed Nawaz “far more cunning and opportunist than we thought.”

Referring to his uncharacteristically aggressive anti-establishment speech back in June 2015, Mr Zardari was quoted as saying that he had been incited by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to say so. “I gave the statement after being duped by Nawaz.”

Without elaborating where the former president gave the remarks, the TV channels further quoted him as saying that Nawaz had encouraged him to fight against the establishment, but he [Nawaz] himself shook hands with the army leadership.

“Nawaz took advantage of the statement and tried to settle issues with the then army chief Gen Raheel Sharif,” Mr Zardari was quoted as saying.

He said they had supported Nawaz when he filed a treason case against former army ruler Musharraf. “Nawaz had assured us that we will not let Musharraf go. But when I gave the statement that Musharraf won’t be allowed to travel abroad, Nawaz sent him out of the country. It turned out that Nawaz had made a deal with Musharraf prior to taking me into confidence.”

The PPP leader complained that they continued agreeing with Nawaz in the larger interest of democracy, Constitution and civilian supremacy, but the latter always exploited it to make his bargaining position better.

“While we remained engaged in politics, Nawaz was busy in trading… He sold us out on every occasion,” he said.

He alleged the NAB and other investigation institutions also became active in Sindh at the behest of Nawaz.

KAIRA: PPP’s central Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira has criticised former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for claiming credit for anti-terrorism and anti-extremism operations in the tribal areas and Karachi and that the allegation that ex-president Asif Zardari was afraid of taking these steps.

“We’ve never been afraid of terrorists and extremists as it was the PPP government (2008-13) that had initiated the military operations not only in Swat but also Bajaur and Waziristan,” he said in a statement, adding it was actually the N-League leadership that was afraid of terrorists.

“When we and GHQ were being targeted, they (Sharifs) were appeasing the Taliban and requesting them to spare Punjab. They were demanding talks with the Taliban when army men were being martyred by the terrorists,” he said. “[PTI chairman] Imran Khan was (even) offering the Taliban to open their office in Peshawar.”

He said more than three million people displaced in Swat operation had been rehabilitated in just three months, while the PML-N government could not yet rehabilitate the people displaced in the Waziristan operation.

Meanwhile, central Punjab secretary general Chaudhry Manzoor said the 11-point agenda given by PTI chief Imran Khan in Lahore public meeting seemed to be a mission statement of any NGO. About Mr Khan’s speech, he said how it could be termed national agenda when foreign, defence and interior policies were missing from it, while there was also no mention of the package the PTI planned for labour and minorities. He alleged KP government’s resources were used to transport people from the province to Lahore and that’s why the participants clapped only when speeches were delivered in Pashto language.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018