No place for Shah Mahmood Qureshi in PPP, says Yousuf Raza Gilani

• Yousuf Raza Gilani says no truth in reports of Shah Mehmood rejoining PPP.
• Says PTI leader from Multan has no place in PPP.
• Gilani says party will discuss these reports in tomorrow's meeting. 

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and PPP Senate parliamentary leader Yusuf Raza Gilani has stated that PTI vice-chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has no place in the PPP and that it is also false that he was welcomed by a party stalwart.

Gilani told The News in a brief interview from Karachi that Shah Mahmood and his close aides were spreading rumours about his meetings with PPP leaders. 

"I hope that when the party's top leadership meets in Islamabad tomorrow, the scope of Qureshi's acceptance by the PPP, who has become a burden on his party, can be further verified," he added.

In response to Qureshi's claim that he was defeated in the provincial assembly election in Multan by his own party, Gilani stated that the polls were rigged. "Now the confession has come from someone who benefited from the rigged elections and was appointed as a federal minister by the declared winner," he insisted.

Gilani said PTI Chairman Imran Khan had failed to accept facts about life and politics. 

"He has for the first time accepted Hamza Shehbaz as Punjab Chief Minister during a hearing in the apex court. I am sure he would also accept Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister of the country since both were elected through a democratic process," he maintained.

Yusuf Raza Gilani asked Imran Khan to desist from creating chaos and rather explain his follies and failures in the government. 

He said the PTI leader was destined to bite the dust in his campaign against the current government as it had come to stay and Imran’s campaign to malign the respected political leadership of the country on concocted stories was bound to boomerang.

"Imran isn’t a political leader but a national criminal who has destroyed the economy and national politics through baseless allegations against others. He is trying to destabilise the country so that the economy will further worsen while he has already ruined it. Imran will have to account for what he has done with the country and its people. He is the architect of today’s sufferings of the people and cannot escape the consequences," he added.