PML-N trying to establish backdoor connections, claims Zardari

LAHORE: PPP-P President, Asif Ali Zardari told party ticket-holders on Monday that the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is trying to establish backdoor contacts with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

In a meeting with party office bearers at Bilawal House, Zardari assured them that he was not going to form any contacts with the PML-N leadership. He also said that he refused to communicate with the PML-N leaders despite their consistent efforts.

This was mentioned by the senior PPP leaders who were present at the meeting while talking to the media afterwards. They said that a number of issues were discussed at the meeting including the PML-N leaders’ attempts to establish backdoor connections with the top PPP leadership.

PPP’s central Secretary Information, Ch Manzoor stated that Zardari told the party leaders that he was not ready to talk to the ousted prime minister even on the phone and that meeting him in person was out of the question.

According to Ch Manzoor, Zardari also said that the PML-N leadership betrayed the PPP on a number of occasions, mainly the time when PPP signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD) with the PML-N, while knowing that Sharif had betrayed the PPP by making an underhand deal with former president Pervez Musharraf and then going into exile.

Zardari reminded the party men that PPP was again cheated by the PML-N after the Islamabad sit-ins and then yet again by joining the Supreme Court hearing in the Memogate case, adding that the PPP was not ready to be deceived once more; Ch Manzoor further quoted the PPP-P president.

Ch Manzoor said Zardari also told the meeting that the former PPP government was responsible for bringing about the barter trade system agreement between Islamabad, Beijing, Tehran and Ankara, a programme that was ruthlessly crushed as the PML-N took over. He further stated that the PML-N is now claiming credit for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as if they were solely responsible for its existence when its initiative was originally taken by the PPP.

Manzoor quoted Zardari as saying that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was destroying the country since he had no knowledge about the economy.

Party leader Nadeem Afzal Chan told the reporters that the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s strategy to establish backdoor contacts was nothing but the last effort to “save his own skin and money”.

The PPP leaders further said that Zardari was also concerned over the PML-N’s statements against the state institutions, when it was, in fact, the PML-N that was responsible for the victimization of the PPP leadership in the past.