LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has hinted at softening his stance towards ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif by saying that talks may be held with the arch-rival but only after the latter divulges his sources of income.

“Talks may be held (with the Sharifs) on issues but they should first reveal that how they built their fortunes while they had come [migrated to Pakistan after partition] empty-handed,” the Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson said while speaking at an Iftar-dinner hosted by the party’s Lahore chief Azizur Rehman in the Karol Ghati area here on Thursday.

“When [these] people came to Pakistan what did they bring here [with them] and what do they own now?” he asked. The PPP co-chairman has so far been rejecting all offers by Mr Sharif for sitting together “in the larger interest of democracy”.

Mr Zardari accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supreme leader of colluding with the establishment for 30 years and taking the anti-establishment line only after his ouster from power, saying that they were the ones who introduced the politics of Changa Manga, a reference to horse-trading in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He said that in their fondness for power the Sharifs forgot even to remain loyal to the homeland. Addressing the PML-N leader, he criticised politicians for deceiving their country in quest for power, counselling them that “homeland comes prior to power.”

Mr Zardari said that a presidential reference about reopening of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case had been lying with the Supreme Court and urged the court to adjudicate the issue at the earliest.

He said that by getting the case reopened he didn’t mean to get someone penalised rather he meant to remind (the perpetrators) of the past mistakes and for­give them because those needed to be penalised had already left this world for good.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2018