Efforts being made to weaken PPP: Zardari

NOWSHERA: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said efforts were being made to weaken the PPP but the party was not afraid as it has always preached democracy.

“The PPP is a federation party with its presence in all four provinces,” the former president said while addressing a workers convention in Nowshera. “Efforts are being made to weaken our party but we are not afraid [to face this] because we preach love and democracy.”

The former president also claimed that he understands the nation’s pain better than all other [political opponents].

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) should not lose hope, he said, adding that the PPP will combine the powers of the province with its own strength to bring an end to all of KP’s issues. 

Earlier in the day, Zardari had said that he had told former prime minister Nawaz Sharif that he would do politics not in the first four years of the government but in the final year before General Elections 2018.

The former president addressed a crowd in Peshawar, also speaking about the recent by-polls in Lahore’s NA-120, where Kulsoom Nawaz emerged victorious.

“I don’t see the establishment backing me up,” said Zardari, adding that he sees a ‘Jiyala’ at his back.

“If you listen to Maryam Nawaz’s statements following the victory, there is a lot to observe,” he remarked.

Zardari said that if Nawaz intended to implement Charter of Democracy back in the day, then the PPP workers wouldn’t have languished in jails.

“I had warned them not to be royalty but they turned into kings and princes,” said the former president mocking the PML-N leadership.

During Zardari’s speech, the workers got unruly and chanted slogans against the party leadership.

The workers reportedly had a grievance that the PPP co-chairman did not meet them.

The former president’s address came a day after the hotly-contested NA-120 by-elections, where PML-N candidate and former PM Nawaz’s wife secured the seat from her party’s stronghold.