ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday reacted strongly to ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s remarks that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was speaking against him to “please someone”.
Commenting on Nawaz’s remarks, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said that the former prime minister should recall the day when he had refused to meet Zardari.
“Nawaz must have been trying to appease someone when he had refused to meet the PPP chief,” said Shah, who is also a senior leader of the PPP. “Mian sahib should say who he was trying to please then,” he added.
Shah said that Nawaz, not democracy, is in trouble, adding that the PML-N leader should not put the blame of his personal difficulties on democracy.
Shah recalled that he had time and again advised the former PM to take parliament into confidence, adding that he had come to the rescue of Nawaz for the sake of preserving the democratic process once, but will not do it again.
“What goes around comes around,” Shah stated.
In a statement, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan urged the former premier to expose the names of those who, according to him, were instructing the PPP co-chairman to speak against him.
“I have been saying for quite some time that Sharif has been shadow boxing,” the PPP senator said. “He is seeing ghosts from every corner and behind curtain,” he added. “His party is ruling in every province, yet he says a conspiracy is being hatched against him.”
Referring to Nawaz’s statement during his appearance before a NAB court on Friday, Aitzaz said the former premier was asking riddles and urged him to speak in unambiguous terms as to who was hatching conspiracies.
It had become increasingly difficult for the PPP to sit with Nawaz Sharif yet the party has been accused of reaching a covert deal with the PML-N, he said.
“Nawaz Sharif’s past is obvious to everyone. He conspired against Benazir Bhutto’s government and mounted pressure on judges to punish her. He also played a major role in the disqualification of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani,” he said, adding that Nawaz played havoc on democracy and hurt the PPP.