GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH: Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday vowed to fight his political opponents in courts and elsewhere after it emerged that his name could be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) in connection with the fake bank accounts case.

Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had announced that the federal cabinet had decided to place on the ECL all 172 suspects named in a joint investigation team’s report in the fake bank accounts case.

Referring to the decision, Mr Zardari who is named in the aforesaid JIT report, said: “Today, the thugs of ladla have challenged us. We are not afraid of their tactics.”

Speaking at a public meeting held here to mark the 11th death anniversary of PPP’s slain leader Benazir Bhutto, Mr Zardari said, “We are all Bhuttos and we are ready to fight them on every front, including the courts.”

Bilawal urges people to support him in his struggle to get rid of ‘puppet rulers’

“As far as Bilawal [Bhutto-Zardari] is concerned, he is the son of BB and me: how can you scare him?” he asked.

Mr Zardari criticised the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government and claimed that it paled in comparison to the PPP.

“They did nothing in their [first] 100 days,” he said, reminding the PPP supporters that he had ousted retired Gen Musharraf and launched the Benazir [Income Support Programme] card, among other things, in his own first 100 days as president.

“They will be unable to run the country despite foreign support by friendly countries,” he said, adding that the PTI-led government lacked competence and a fresh perspective to govern.

Bilawal sees a new fight

Speaking on the occasion, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari pledged to continue to “fight the war that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto fought” and asked the audience to be ready for a new battle.

Saying that he himself would lead the new fight, he asked the participants whether they would stand by him and launch a struggle to get rid of what he called “puppet rulers”.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari called upon the people to gather under the PPP’s tri-colour flag to “fight against undemocratic forces and stop attacks on the country’s institutions, democracy and provincial autonomy, freedom of press and 18th Amendment”.

In an apparent reference to the fake bank accounts case, he said they would not only appear in the court of law but also before the people’s court. He was confident that they would be exonerated as had been in the past. “We will emerge victorious as truth always prevails.”

“Pressure is being exerted on us to make us lend support to the rulers in doing away with the 18th Amendment, but it is impossible for us to betray people,” the PPP leader said.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the Joint Investigation Team report in the fake accounts case was a “pack of lies”. Without naming anyone, he said with this report, they had tried to mislead the honourable court but it would throw the report in dustbin.

He said the third generation (of the Bhutto family) was being dragged in courts in fake cases.

He said the National Accountability Bureau was active in targeting and arresting only opposition leaders, but no action was seen against Aleema Khanum, the sister of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PPP leader asked whether the prime minister, his cabinet members and their families were above the law.

He asked why the protest of Baloch mothers and daughters in Quetta had gone unheeded who were crying for their near and dear ones who had gone missing years ago.

He said youth should not be pushed to the wall and if these (missing persons) were criminals they should be produced in court.

He asked why the rulers were campaigning for construction of the Kalabagh dam though three provincial assemblies had rejected it and why Sindh’s objections to others issues had been thrown in the dustbin.

In a speech punctuated with verses, Mr Bhutto-Zardari criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking U-turns and said there was difference between running a government and playing cricket.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2018