LAHORE, Jan 8: Tehrik-i-Insaf vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi says the party will field honest leadership as all rivals including the PPP and PML-N will flee the country in bad times.

He also vows to respond in Sindh to President Asif Zardari’s assertions against him. He was speaking at a ceremony here on Sunday.

Former foreign ministers Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri, Sirdar Assef Ahmed Ali, central vice-president Ijaz Chaudhry, Mahmoodur Rashid and others were also present.

Qureshi said the growing popularity of the PTI had worried the PPP and PML-N as these were engaged in creating rifts within the ranks of the party. He said he had told Imran Khan that “if we do not abide by our ideology the people who are joining us in large numbers daily will quit it at the same pace.”

He warned both President Zardari and Nawaz Sharif that they would be unable to counter the PTI `tsunami’ as the party had become a symbol of change. Kasuri said transparent and fair elections had become all the more necessary in the current circumstances.

He regretted that fair polls were held in neighbouring India and Bangladesh but not in Pakistan. He cautioned that the nation would kick out those who would dare to rig the electoral process. He denied reports that he had met or contacted former army ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Sirdar Ali did not see polls before October this year. Seeing possibilities of Zardari and Nawaz joining hands, he said alliances should be made in post-election and nor pre-election environment.

He alleged that President Zardari was facing legal complications because the PPP co-chairperson was following the advices of former law minister Babar Awan.