‘Incompetent’ PTI govt won’t complete tenure, says Zardari

Former president Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government will be unable to complete its tenure in light of the recent decision of opposition parties to join hands.

On Tuesday, Zardari along with his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad. The meeting was also attended by leaders of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Awami National Party. The opposition parties agreed to adopt a joint strategy on crucial matters, according to reports.

Speaking at the 32nd death anniversary of Fazil Rahu in Badin, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman alleged that the powers which want to oust him from the arena of politics actually covet control of Sindh’s natural resources.

“Their war with me is only over the 18th constitutional amendment,” he told the crowd of party’s supporters at the public meeting. “Because the plots, the lands have finished in whole Pakistan now and only some reserves of gas and oil have remained. Now they want control of that, too.”

Referring to the meeting, Zardari told party supporters that he found it inconceivable that Imran Khan’s government would complete its tenure.

Calling the government corrupt, he alleged the PTI government of embezzling funds earmarked for charity, not only in the hereafter but in this world as well.

He added that the people of Sindh are very much aware of their rights and that even people in the rest of the country knew their rights. Zardari didn’t mince words in his criticism of the PTI, saying that people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Punjab besides Sindh are aware that the PTI government was formed through electoral engineering.

“But if you [Imran Khan] have been made an accidental, a sudden prime minister, you should learn to govern?” he asked and added that the PTI leadership lacks the intention of serving the people and that they are not connected with the masses.

The former president claimed that the poor of Pakistan are cursing the PTI-led government because of inflation and redundancy. He highlighted the country’s current economic woes, including the government’s failure to prevent the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar. He contended that inflation was a direct consequence of the depreciation. “We used to keep a very close eye on the value of the dollar,” he remarked.