RAHIM YAR KHAN: Former president Asif Ali Zardari lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday and said he did not see the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government completing its tenure.

“Imran Khan can neither handle the economy nor the government. I don’t think the captain’s government will continue for a long time. If Imran doesn’t deliver he will have to go home,” the PPP leader said at a public gathering in the Nawazabad area of Sadiqabad tehsil, some 85km from here.

Mr Zardari urged the PTI-led government to fulfil its promise about creating a new province in south Punjab. “They stole our slogan about the creation of a new province, but now they don’t have the courage to go ahead,” he said.

Asks Imran to fulfil promise of dividing Punjab

“Why don’t they divide Punjab’s budget? They are not sincere to the cause. They don’t have any understanding of politics.”

The former president said had he not transferred to parliament the powers he had as president of the country, a dentist would not have been a president today. He was referring to the incumbent president, Arif Alvi, according to analysts.

Mr Zardari declared his party was the only one that had granted rights to the provinces. It also pulled the country out of the crises it faced during Gen Pervez Musharraf’s government.

About the 18th Amendment, he said that powers were not devolved to the provinces to enrich a few individuals. “But they don’t understand such things.”

He promised that if the PPP came to power again, it would ensure that the provinces and districts which produced gas and oil received adequate royalty for them.

He said that when it was in power, the PPP “held no prisoners, nor did it think of holding anyone accountable”. “Our government is the only one during whose tenure there were no political prisoners in jails. In all other eras and periods, we have had political prisoners.”

Truth cannot be hidden today, he said. “The mobile phones that you are using to take my pictures reveal the truth all the time.”

The PPP leader also criticised Prime Minister Khan for defending “his U-turns”.

Speaking earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said Sindh would be transformed into a model province.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2018