PTI ready for parliamentary role but govt not serious: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

• Qureshi says his party is ready to perform parliamentary role. 
• Says govt not serious about it as it is not giving date for election. 
• Fawad says entire country is attentively listening to Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is willing to play a role in Parliament but the government is not ready to make a serious commitment in this regard, claimed former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The PTI leader made the remarks while reacting to Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's statement against PTI chief Imran Khan. 

Bilawal, addressing a gathering in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh held to mark the 15th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, asked the PTI chief to return to parliament as neither he nor his party “could bear” what’s coming to them.

Issuing a statement, Qureshi said that the PTI is ready to play a parliamentary role, but the government is not announcing a date for general elections.

Addressing the PPP chief's charge against Imran Khan, the PTI leader said, "The establishment is apolitical. How can we contact them?"

Responding to Bilawal's statement urging the PTI to rejoin the parliament, Qureshi said that Bilawal could not invite the party to join the parliament as it is the prerogative of the prime minister.

Censuring Imran Khan, Bilawal said that it was the final warning to the puppet — a clear reference to the PTI chief — to return to parliament and join the NAB and elections reforms.

The PPP chairman said that he does not want the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to be used against Imran Khan. 

"Therefore, you [Imran] should come back to parliament. Otherwise, we will not be in a position to prevent them from doing what they do," he warned.

Reacting to Bilawal's remarks against PTI and Imran Khan, senior leader Fawad Chaudhry called the PPP leaders "the puppets of the establishment". 

Taking to Twitter, the PTI leader said, "The puppets of the establishment set up a farce at the mausoleum of Benazir Bhutto today."

"Zardari and his son dealt such a deep blow to Benazir's philosophy that her assassins could not eliminate Bhutto but they managed to fulfil the mission of Benazir's adversaries by abolishing the federal status of the PPP," he tweeted.

According to Fawad, the country currently has only one federal party and a single leader which is PTI and its chairman. Imran Khan's call is being heard across the country, he said, adding that his call is resonating from the mountains of Chagai to the Khyber, and from Lahore to Karachi.

"Political dwarfs cannot survive in politics solely by delivering phoney speeches," he underlined.  

He alleged that Zardari and Bilawal sponsored assaults on the Constitution.