SUKKUR: Former prime minister and PMLN leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday said not attending the Senate session was the mistake on the part of Yusuf Raza Gilani and he would himself clear his position on the issue.
He said the solution to the country’s problems lies in holding free, fair and transparent elections. On Saturday, top leadership of both the PMLN and PPP were exchanging pleasantries, while on the very next day they again resorted to spitting venom against each other.
Talking to the reporters in Hyderabad, Jhol and Sanghar, Khaqan Abbasi said whenever it comes to elections, the presidential system is fostered, adding the presidential system did not run in the past and will not run in the future.
“We had doubled the share of provinces. Sindh had received a huge amount of money during our government,” he added. He said gas is produced in Sindh but unfortunately there is loadshedding of the commodity in the province. The gas distribution system should be handed over to the provinces, adding the country cannot move forward without giving respect to the vote.
He said Hyderabad needs a mass transit project, hoping that it would be launched when the PMLN government will come to power. He said his party and the PPP are on the same page to send the PTI government packing, adding the PMLN will contest the elections in Sindh against the PPP.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the rulers cannot solve the problems of people on the dictations of the IMF, adding talks with the PPP are going on and we are together in the opposition. He said the PMLN is focusing on Sindh and will give a tough time to the opponents in the local bodies as well as general elections.
He said Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto had just attended the luncheon of PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif, adding the political strategy of the PPP and PMLN was separate. He said the PMLN will contest the elections in Jhol and Sanghar.
He welcomed Mir Jawad Talpur into the PMLN’s fold and said the PPP had done nothing for the Sindh province in its 13-year rule, adding the people of the province, including Jhol, were deprived of health, education and other facilities.
He said former premier Nawaz Sharif had focused on Sindh and provided billions of rupees’ funds for its development. He said political leaders meet with each other, adding meeting with the MQM-P should not be criticised. He said the PTI had not invested a penny in the Green Line Bus Project.
Meanwhile, PPP’s Sindh secretary information Aajiz Dhamra, while responding to Shahid Khaqan Abassi’s statement, said the PMLN need to clarify that under what agenda Shah Khaqan Abbasi was working. He also questioned if Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s stance is supported by the PMLN.
He further said it seems Shahid Khaqan Abbasi even does not agree with his party leadership. He said Shahid Khaqan Abbasi must learn the politics of consensus from his sister Sadia Abbasi. He said the legacy of their elders’ politics would be better carried forward by Sadia Abbasi. Addressing Khaqan Abbasi, he said: “You don’t have political vision and guts that your sister Sadia Abbasi have.” He said in the past also, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi created fissures in the ranks of opposition and he is doing the same now.