Ready to tender resignations if Nawaz returns: Zardari | The Express Tribune

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday urged Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif to come back to Pakistan, saying that “they all will have to go to jail if they want to fight against the incumbent regime”.

“I have spent 14 years of my life in jail. We fought the Senate elections together but Senator Ishaq Dar did not come to vote [in election for Senate chairman and deputy chairman]. If we have to fight, we all will have to go to jail. So, Mian sahib, please come back to Pakistan,” Zardari was quoted by sources as saying during the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) meeting being held at the PML-N secretariat in Islamabad.

 

The remarks made during today’s meeting reinforced the existence of discord among the 11-party opposition alliance’s leadership.

Earlier on Monday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is attending the meeting via video link, had said he did not favour en masse resignations of the opposition’s legislators at this stage.

“We should use the resignations as an atom bomb, as the last option,” he underscored at a press conference in Hyderabad.

Both, PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders on the other hand are of the view that resignations have become indispensable for launching a decisive political movement to oust the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government at the Centre.

Former president Zardari, addressing the meeting via video link, said that when his slain wife former prime minister Benazir Bhutto returned to the country in 1986 and then again in 2007, the PPP mobilised the entire country. “I have no fear of the establishment, but the struggle against the establishment should be for the stability of democratic institutions rather than for personal obstinacy.”

Also read: Not in favour of en masse resignations: Bilawal

Zardari, while addressing Sharif, said that how would he solve the problems of the people even if he gets into power since PML-N did not increase the salaries of government employees which was done during the PPP’s tenure.

“Mian sahib, if you are ready for war, you have to come back to Pakistan whether it is for long march or resignations [from the assemblies]. I am ready for war but maybe my domicile is not the right one but Mian sahib you represent Punjab,” he added.

The PPP co-chairman further said that he and his party was punished for giving power to the parliament by passing the 18th amendment and NFC award. “We are ready to fight till our last breath but leaving the assemblies is tantamount to strengthening the establishment and [Prime Minister] Imran Khan. Do not make decisions that will divert our paths. The benefits of our discord will benefit the enemies of democracy,” he added.

Read more: Govt ‘exacting revenge on ECP’ for by-polls, Senate setback

Responding to the PPP co-chairman, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said that her father would return to the country if Zardari is ready to give guarantees of his life.

Maryam said that she decided to stay in the country as per her wish. “You are also on video link right now just like my father,” she reminded the former president.

The PML-N leader said that Nawaz Sharif’s life was in danger in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) custody. “My father had two heart attacks when he was in prison. His life is in danger,” she maintained.

Maryam further said that despite being the largest party in the opposition, the PML-N voted for PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani in Senate elections, following PDM’s decision.

Sources revealed that Zardari apologised to Maryam in case his statement regarding the return of Nawaz Sharif had hurt her. In response, the PML-N vice president said that her intention was not to seek an apology.

“I respect you like Bakhtawar and Asifa (daughters of Zardari),” she added.