PML-N wrongly taking credit for many PPP achievements: Sharjeel

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been trying to take the credit of works which were originally not its achievements.

Former Sindh information minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Sharjeel Memon said this while addressing a press conference at the media cell of Bilawal House on Monday. He asserted that every Pakistani knew well the accomplishments of all the political parties.

PPP founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had laid down his life to secure nuclear capability for Pakistan, but the PML-N had been wrongly attempting to take credit for the nuclear power of Pakistan, he said.

Memon said the credit went to former president Asif Ali Zardari for laying the foundations of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the PML-N had nothing to do with this achievement. The former Sindh information minister satirically remarked that tomorrow, the PML-N could take credit for the foundation of Pakistan.

He said the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto was the architect of the Thar Coal project. He recalled that the PPP’s past government had initiated the Thar coal project after PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had shelved it.

He condemned that a PPP candidate contesting the upcoming general polls from the constituency PP-163 of the Punjab Assembly had been allotted the election symbol of ‘kettle’. The PP-163 constituency is part of Lahore’s National Assembly constituency where PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was a candidate, Memon said as he appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan to avoid committing such mistakes in the run-up to the polls.

“We don’t want any undue advantage but the Election Commission should fulfil its constitutional obligations,” the PPP leader said. He claimed that the popularity graph of the PML-N had been fast declining in Punjab after its popularity had hit rock bottom in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh.

The residents of Punjab did not like the PML-N anymore, Memon maintained. He told the media that every political party should get a fair chance to contest the upcoming elections and whoever won the polls should get the chance to form the next government in the country.

“The PML-N has yet to start its election campaign and it should desist from deceiving the people by trying to take credit for such achievements that have nothing to do with it,” the former Sindh information minister said.

He opined that the PPP and its chairman launched their election campaign soon after the tenure of the past government had ended. The PPP leader said the politics of Bilawal stood for ending the traditional methods of politics based on vendetta and hatred. “The founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] has landed in jail due to the politics of vengeance while Nawaz Sharif has been practising the identical form of politics,” Memon remarked.

He recalled that opponents of the PTI had been sent to jail during its past regime even on account of criticising Imran Khan on television talk shows. He stated that both the PML-N and PTI had been attempting to come into power at any cost with total disregard for the genuine issues of the public.

Memon recalled that the PPP had never run away from the elections despite facing numerous atrocities, including murders of its leaders. He also recalled that the PTI founder had been behind the appointment of the incumbent chief election commissioner (CEC). He mentioned that remarks of Khan in the past had been full of praise for the incumbent CEC.

The PPP had never used backdoor means to gain power, Memon said, adding that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was accorded a VIP protocol upon his return to the country. “At present, there is a competition between two blue-eyed boys of Pakistani politics as both in the past attempted to use backdoor means to come into power,” the PPP leader said.