ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry has alleged that former president Asif Ali Zardari has damaged his own PPP by converting a “national level party into a regional party”.

Reacting over the criticism by Mr Zardari on the present government’s performance while speaking at a public meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday evening, the information minister said the former president had damaged the PPP more than the previous military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq did.

“(Mr) Zardari has accomplished the task which Gen Zia failed to. He has made the PPP a regional party from the national party,” Mr Chaudhry said in a statement issued hours after the PPP’s Hyderabad gathering.

“Instead of counting first 100 days of the present government, Asif Zardari Sahib should focus on his last days in politics,” the minister said in response to the PPP leader’s criticism of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. “Those who had ruined the country and the nation through their thousand-day rule are now counting our 100 days,” he said. Mr Chaudhry said that people were asking as to who had given Mr Zardari the right to loot the nation’s wealth. He said whenever the opposition members were made accountable, they started talking about democracy. He recalled that Mr Zardari had previously too given a statement and then he had to spend three years in Dubai.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2018