Mirza again grills Zardari in Bhutto’s name

• PPP leader accuses party co-chairman of keeping son away from politics, running party as business
• PPP’s Chandio denounces Mirza for remarks as agitators tear Mirza’s posters in Badin

The already perplexed leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was left high and dry Thursday after its leader Zulfiqar Mirza again scorched the party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for allegedly perpetrating a campaign to bar his son, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari from taking part in active politics.

“Zardari is running the party not on the political basis but as a business. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto did not sacrifice her life to help Zardari become a billionaire. Except for Bilawal Bhutto, all the PPP leaders are on daily wages. No amount of graft money could satisfy their ballooning bellies that are always stretching to accommodate more as if made of rubber,” he said while taking to local media, adding that Bilawal had started a crusade to save PPP.

A day earlier, giving ground to the ‘viral word of mouth’ that the party top brass was drifting apart, Mirza had accused some of his peers of conspiring to bar Bilawal from taking part in active politics in Pakistan.

“Who can stop someone who has the blood of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto running through his veins? Their designs will die their own death. No one can stop Bilawal from doing politics in the country of his origin. My leader is only Bilawal,” he said, adding, “Zardari could be pulling the strings of pawns who are campaigning against Bilawal.”

Bilawal has left the country for past many months and living in London in political seclusion amid widespread rumours of abandoning the politics.

Mirza also accused Zardari’s close aide Anwar Majeed of brokering business deals and thus distorting the party cadres. He said that Majeed was the main cause behind the rift between the father and the son.

Mirza further said that he was still a party worker as it was not personal heritage of anyone and he himself was the owner of the party being the political scion of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He also recalled his sacrifices for the party during the days of opposition but complained that his sacrifices were forgotten by the top party leadership.

The disgruntled leader also wished that Uzair Baloch, the arrested Lyari gang kingpin, should disclose the matters that would expose many faces of the party leadership.

Mirza also picked apart Mutttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for playing ‘coalition coalition’ with PPP in Sindh.

“I see PPP-MQM alliance as ‘complicity’ among carjackers. By the way, if thieves join their hands together, looting becomes a breeze,” Mirza said somewhat implying the MQM joined Sindh government out of the doctrine of necessity.

On the recent row between the MQM and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mirza said he was going to London, where he would celebrate the embarrassment that former’s party chief Altaf Hussain suffered lately at the hands of the latter’s leadership.

Mirza added that during his visit to the British capital he would hold a detailed meeting with Bilawal, who he claimed was sidelined by his own father for raising voice against the rampant bad governance in the province of Sindh, the political stronghold of the PPP.

MIRZA’S POSTERS TORN:

Meanwhile, the political tension mounted in the Badin, Mirza’s constituency, as unidentified agitators Thursday tore the posters and banners of the firebrand PPP leader Mirza after he revealed the rift between Zardari and Bilawal.

Mirza, who is blamed for creating political differences between PPP and MQM, was cornered by the PPP leadership after he openly supported the banned Peoples Amn Committee that was being run by the gangs of Lyari.

PPP senior leader Moula Baksh Chandio denounced Mirza for his fiery remarks. “Mirza’s statements are only hurting PPP. We will not let anyone get away with it,” Chandio said.