LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Thursday responded furiously to Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s criticism on former president and PPP-Parliamentarian President Asif Ali Zardari regarding the multi-billion dollar initiative of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Reacting to Shehbaz Sharif’s statement, PPP Central Information Secretary and MNA Nafeesa Shah said the Punjab chief minister had earlier tendered an apology to Asif Zardari and he will be doing the same again very soon.
“The Sharif brothers closed 24,000 MW electricity projects in the 1990s to earn commissions,” she said.
“Shehbaz Sharif has launched a verbal attack against Zardari to appease former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. The people in Punjab are dying due to influenza while Shehbaz Sharif is busy in fake speeches. The Sharif brothers are doing politics of lies and abuses,” Nafeesa added.
She said that the courts have acquitted Asif Zardari while the Sharif brothers have been given a certificate for lying by the courts. Punjab has become a hub of criminals, and the Sharif brothers can do nothing to hide their corruption, added the parliamentarian.
PPP Central Punjab Information Secretary Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said Shehbaz Sharif staged a drama in Malakwal. “The CPEC was launched by the PPP and the history will not change due to Shehbaz’s lies. The country is struck with load shedding and Shehbaz Sharif as per his promise should change his name. The Sharif brothers will have to answer for looting billions of rupees,” he said.
“The real target of Shehbaz Sharif is none but his own elder brother (ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif). Shehbaz’s speech is not that of a chief minister, in fact, is that of a mentally sick person. His days are numbered and he will not be able to escape accountability,” said Khokhar while adding that Shehbaz is demanding more time from the masses to change the prevailing thana culture despite the fact that he has been ruling Punjab for the last 10 years. The people will not fall for his lies this time, he said.
The reactions came after Shehbaz earlier on Thursday said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government initiated the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and claimed that Asif Zardari was falsely trying to take credit for the multi-billion dollar project.
Addressing a public meeting in Malakwal, he lambasted Asif Ali Zardari and said that if Zardari was behind the CPEC then at least some of the projects should have been initiated by the PPP government during his rule.
