PM Imran Khan vows to now go after Zardari

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Wednesday that he will turn his guns towards the Pakistan Peoples Party’s supremo Asif Ali Zardari after thwarting the joint opposition’s no-trust motion in the National Assembly.

PM Khan was addressing a gathering of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh lawmakers in Karachi during his one-day visit to the city where he also held a meeting with the leadership of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Grand Democratic Alliance, in a bid to reinforce the trust with his government's allies in the Centre.

“I was telling my team that they (opposition) have done what I was praying for,” said PM Imran while speaking to the party lawmakers and leaders gathered at the Governor's House. Terming the no-confidence motion against his government the 'political death' of the opposition, PM Khan claimed that he had planned his moves for the future and will not stop once he wins the backing of the National Assembly.

"No-confidence motion is their political death,” PM Imran Khan told his workers about the opposition. The premier said that he was waiting for the "gang of robbers" as they were claiming after "every two months" that the government would be going.

"I was thinking somehow I can entangle them,” said PM Imran Khan, adding that he had wanted the opposition to submit the motion. The premier claimed that the opposition has become “trapped” after submitting the no-confidence motion. He added that he had planned his moves for the future and would not stop once he "wins" the backing of the National Assembly.

“My hands were tied, so far. The shackles that were on my hands will be broken,” said PM Imran. “I have been waging a struggle against these thieves for 25 years because I am fighting for my country,” he said.

PM Khan said he was busy for the past three-and-a-half years in "stabilising the country amid various disruptions", warning the opposition that it should now brace for his response. Accusing the former president of using the "police and thugs to get people killed", engaging in theft and corruption and laundering money abroad, PM Khan warned Zardari that “your time has come.” He alleged that the former president roams around with “buckets of money” and has kept Rs200 million to buy the PTI MPAs.

Calling the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif a “boot polisher”, PM Imran claimed that he had joined hands with the PPP as he knows that his time was up. “Your time is also up. You know you will be in jail after three months. We will decrease the price of electricity after getting money back from your family,” said the prime minister.

The premier said that Zardari, Shehbaz, and PDM chief Fazlur Rehman have joined hands with each other not to save the country but to save themselves from him. Imran Khan told his party workers that the government, after winning the no-confidence motion, would take the three opposition bigwigs — Zardari, Shehbaz and Fazl — to “Pakistani jails where they should have been sent long ago."

After his meeting with MQM-P leaders at the party’s temporary headquarters at Bahadurabad, the premier arrived at the Sindh Governor's House, where he held a meeting with GDA leaders and discussed the overall political situation in the country. GDA’s lawmakers, including Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Husnain Ali Mirza, Moazzam Ali Khan, Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Shahryar Khan Mahr, Nand Kumar Goklani, Nasim Akhtar Rajpar and Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, met PM Khan at the Governor's House.

PM Khan also met PTI’s leaders and lawmakers at the Governor's House.

Meanwhile, following the opposition parties' no-trust motion, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday also met Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s leaders on his visit to the party’s headquarters in a bid to reinforce his trust in the allied political parties. PM Imran Khan arrived at the MQM-P’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad where the leaders of the MQM-P and PTI welcomed him. The PM was accompanied by Planning Minister Asad Umar, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi while the MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui led his party’s leaders in the meeting.