— PPP leader says his party believes in cooperation
— Zardari calls parliament a place for grand dialogue
LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira on Friday said that the parliament has not been undermined due to disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister.
“No one has undermined the parliament and the system continues to run as it should,” he said. “His (Nawaz) ouster was due to his ‘own crimes’ and not due to a threat to democracy,” he said.
Kaira said that the system and the foundations laid down during the PPP’s tenure exist and democracy in the country would gradually improve. “PPP believes in cooperation in and out of the parliament for the betterment of the people and Pakistan,” he said.
He said that Nawaz Sharif should have taken the initiative earlier to cooperate with the political forces of the country. PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that the PPP never supported Nawaz Sharif or his government, but supported democracy in order to save it.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had also said they would not support the PML-N and no relief should be expected from the PPP. On Friday, Zardari clarified that the parliament was only place for the grand national dialogue.
He lashed out at Nawaz Sharif, saying his thinking about democracy was dangerous. He said that the former prime minister refused to meet him when his brother died to make apolitical powers happy. “We were in prison but Nawaz Sharif ran away,” he said.
The PPP leader asked why Nawaz Sharif was not accepting Supreme Court’s decision in the Panama Papers case as PPP immediately brought new prime minister when the judiciary ousted Yousaf Raza Gilani.
He said that refusing to administer oath to Nawaz Sharif in 2013 would have created crisis. “But we ensured smooth democracy process in the country,” he said. About his party leaders, Zardari said that Raza Rabbani was an independent intellectual and Senate chairman while Aitzaz Ahsan’s words were his words.
