I will tear ‘show-baz’ belly to recover Pakhtuns’ money: Zardari

Says SC verdict is charge-sheet against PM

By Tahir Khan Azikhel & Muslim Sabir  

BATKHELA/TAKHT BHAI: Ridiculing the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as ‘show-baz’, the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said he will tear his belly to recover the looted money of Pakhtuns.

“I call upon you (Pakhtuns) to stand up and not demand but snatch your rights from the usurpers. The PPP is with you,” he said while addressing a big public meeting in Badraga village of Malakand as part of his visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after many years.

He said the decision of the five-member Supreme Court bench in the Panama Papers case was a charge-sheet against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “The court has declared him a thief. And I demand his resignation,” he said.

Zardari maintained that Nawaz Sharif had lost moral and legal authority to continue as the prime minister and he should step down to allow free and fair investigation against him in the offshore companies case.

“All political parties are demanding his resignation after the court verdict against him,” he added. He vowed to recover every single embezzled penny from the Sharif family. He said the Sharif brothers were wrong if they thought that the country would become wealthy and prosperous if they became rich.

Zardari said the Sharifs fled the country in difficult times. “The PPP leaders have proved that they would not flee the country whatever the situation,” he said, adding, the PPP wanted to serve the masses.

He termed the lynching of student Mashal Khan at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan a tragic incident and said it showed the failure of the ruling parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the Centre and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

“The federal and KP governments have failed to protect students in the educational institutions,” he argued. After raising go Nawaz go, Zardari also chanted go Imran slogan. Criticising the PML-N leadership for claiming credit for the game-changer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Zardari said the PPP had first initiated work on the project and it was his party’s project.

He claimed the federal government had deceived the tribesmen on the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said blocking of computerised national identity cards (CINCs) of Pakhtuns was an insult.

The PPP leader said his party had given identity to the Pakhtuns by changing the name of the province and giving provincial autonomy to the federating units. He said the previous PPP government had constructed seven universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so the children of the province get access to higher education and serve and play their role in nation building.

He said the former PPP chairman and ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto Shaheed used to call Malakand her second home. He said the participation of people in the PPP’s Mardan and Malakand public meetings had proved that the masses in these areas were still supporting the PPP.

“The participation of people in a huge number in today’s and Mardan public meetings is a referendum against the PML-N and PTI,” he said. He hoped that the PPP would win the general elections and announced to double the budget of the Benazir Income Support Programme if voted to power.