National Assembly Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah asserted on Friday that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Co-chairman Asif Zardari, acted as a saviour of democracy by convincing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to resign as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) turned up the political heat with its 2014 sit-in.
The 126-day-long sit-in in Islamabad had called for the resignation of Nawaz Sharif from the post of prime minister amid allegations that the 2013 General Election was rigged.
“Nawaz Sharif was going to resign. We [the PPP] stopped him. We said, ‘This is the Parliament’s war’,” Shah claimed while speaking to media in Karachi.
“Asif Zardari went to Raiwind and showed the world that he had accepted Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister,” he added.
Earlier in March, PTI Chairman Imran Khan alleged that PM Nawaz struck a deal with Zardari to ‘save himself’ in the ongoing Panamagate corruption case.
The PTI chairman added that the deal consists of the prime minister announcing projects in Sindh while Zardari is in Lahore.
“The PPP is now repeating history, returning the favour that PML-N did to them by remaining silent for four years,” Khan had claimed.
When asked about Sindh governor and PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair’s statements attributing responsibility for peace in Karachi to the premier, Shah said Nawaz had no role to play in Karachi’s ‘improved’ security situation.
The leader of opposition went on to criticise the federal government for attempting to block the Sindh government’s move to remove Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja.
“Under the 18th Amendment bill, the provincial government has the right to make decisions as it deems fit,” Shah said.
“By putting blockages in the provincial government’s way, the federal government is playing a dangerous game,” he said, adding that if the move is blocked, the PPP would have to consider its next step.
“As leader of the opposition, I have the position to fight within and without the Parliament for democracy.”
Shah’s statements come at a time the PPP appears to have begun campaigning for the upcoming General Election.
