Zardari terms ‘selective accountability’ as worst form of corruption

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said selective accountability, sacred cow syndrome, double standards and using corruption for political re-engineering are the worst forms of corruption which must be resisted.

In a statement issued on the eve of the 88th birth anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PPP Co-chairman vowed not to allow any individual or institution to usurp the power that belongs to the people.

“PPP will not permit the fanatics to usurp that power in the name of religion,” the PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted Asif Zardari as saying.

“Shaheed Bhutto gave the country a unanimous Constitution. It envisages that the power to make or amend the Constitution and the laws on behalf of the people rests with the Parliament and Parliament alone,” said the PPP Co-chairman.

He said the judiciary has the powers to review the laws made by the parliament on the touchstone of the Constitution but it cannot make laws on its own. And the executive has to implement those laws without interference, he added.

“Today on the eve of the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhutto we reiterate our pledge to stoutly protect this Constitutional scheme of things,” Zardari asserted.

He said the PPP believes that corruption is a scourge that must be eliminated. He, however, added that ‘for far too long only the representatives of the people have been painted black in the name of corruption’.

He said those who upheld the constitutional deviations under PCO, validated take over by dictators and undermined national security through non-state actors must also be held accountable.

“Finally, today the PPP pays homage to all citizens and political workers who have rendered huge sacrifices in the fight against tyranny and for standing by democracy,” he said.

Zardari urged the people particularly the youth to study the political philosophy of the country’s first directly elected Prime Minister with a view to drawing inspiration for overcoming the myriad social, economic and political challenges facing the country today.

Bilawal for carrying forward ZAB’s philosophy

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman Pakistan People’s Party meanwhile asked the workers to carry forward the philosophy and vision of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a homage to the great democrat, founder of the PPP and first democratically-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

He said that the best way to pay homage to the legendary founder of the PPP is following his vision and mission the way his daughter Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto did.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pledged that he has already picked up the thread of struggle of Bhutto Shaheed and Bibi Shaheed had left behind to accomplish the mission, they embraced martyrdom for.