Mere good looks can’t attract investment, says Zardari

Faizan Bangash
LAHORE: PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said Tuesday Pakistanis as a nation could not afford to live in isolation and advised politicians to safeguard the interests of Pakistan.

“We cannot live in isolation and we have to make world as our stake and pave the way for the progress of our future generations and for future Malalas,” said the former president while addressing a reception in his honour hosted by PPP Central Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo.

Party’s central leadership former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, former ministers, parliamentarians Tasneem Qureshi, Mehreen Anwar Raja, Rubina Shaheen Wattoo, Ghulam Farid Kathiya and others were also present.

Zardari also announced setting up a relief fund for martyrs and those injured in Indian firing at the Line of Control.

Addressing the gathering, the former president criticised the politicians misguiding the nation and stated that mere ‘good looks’ could not attract foreign investment or build trust of other countries. He said a roadmap was needed to run a country like Pakistan and to protect its interests.

He said businessmen of Punjab had expressed their grievances to him in a meeting which they faced during the last PPP government. He said he realised that the complaints expressed by them were genuine and they had now been asked to guide the PPP and come up with ideas which later could be included in the party’s manifesto. He added that next finance minister of the PPP government would come from the business community.

He said that when he was president, he took many steps in the national interest, whether it was the Gwadar or awarding rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, tribal areas and Balochistan.

The politicians needed to respect each other as well as the country’s armed forces which were rendering remarkable sacrifices for the country’s defence, he added.

About the PPP’s previous government, he said he wanted to launch many projects for public interest but sometimes bureaucracy blocked them through judiciary and at times judiciary intervened through bureaucracy. The former president said some of our friends were seen busy in a ‘war’ to attain power and country’s situation was different now.

He added that PPP also faced rigging in the 2013 general elections but it accepted the results in the interest of democracy, adding it was high time politicians busy in a tug-of-war showed patience and avoided anything which ran counter to federation’s interest.

Manzoor Wattoo said it was Asif Zardari under whose leadership the culture of national reconciliation flourished in the country. Earlier, talking to reporters at the inauguration of world’s seventh largest mosque at Bahria Town, Zardari said there was no room for dictators or technocrats’ set-up in future.