Tag: Asif Ali Zardari

LAHORE: Information minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that the prospect of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) joining hands to launch a movement against the government did not make the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) nervous at all. “Thugs of Pakistan will be the right title for their alliance, which is destined to fail just like Bollywood flick Thugs of Hindustan.” He once again claimed that the political careers of PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had ended. Chaudhry said Pakistan had faced a debt of Rs 6 trillion when the government of former president General Pervez Musharraf ended, but the debt rose by 84 per cent to Rs 30 trillion when Nawaz Sharif’s tenure ended. “Where has this money gone?” he asked. He alleged that Sharif’s children had become “billionaires” at an age when an average Pakistani child was not even eligible to be issued a national identity card. The minister said that the ruling PTI had dismantled the web of corrupt alliances in the country. “The verdicts are quite obvious as the owners have failed to defend their properties,” he said in response to a question. Recounting the government’s achievements on the economic front, he said a vivid change was happening on a daily basis. “France has changed its travel advisory while others are ready to do the same due to the improved political situation in Pakistan. The government is willing to ease visa restrictions in order to attract tourists and more investment in the country.” Countries like United States, China, Saudi Arabia and the European Union are willing to invest in Pakistan, he added.

Express News reporter Ahmed Mansoor asked at a press conference. And it seems Mansoor's question was not well-received. For those who follow Pakistan's domestic affairs closely, it is clear that this effort to silence independent voices in the media is part of an attempt to unlawfully engineer the country's political landscape. Controlling the public narrative Today, it is quite difficult to steer the public discourse in Pakistan in one direction. Pakistan now has dozens of independent news channels, and thanks to high mobile and internet penetration, the public lives and breathes politics. Conversations on militancy, foreign policy and court cases of politicians are staples at work, the dinner table and social gatherings. These are just a few examples of the ongoing campaign by the security establishment to intimidate critical media professionals in an attempt to turn public opinion against Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party and in favour of Imran Khan's PTI. Now, there are new attempts to block Sharif's return to power and bring in a weak, puppet-like coalition parliament instead. But to reverse the 18th amendment, without throwing the country into political turmoil and mass riots, the military needs a change in government and to make this a reality it needs to sell a narrative. After an inquiry into alleged vote-rigging at the 2013 elections failed to produce any results, the former prime minister was then targeted with a corruption court case for failing to disclose the source of funds used to pay for two luxury apartments in the UK.

For the first time in the country’s electoral history, the coming elections will be dominated by the aspirations of the very young in the country. They would have reached the voting age since the elections of 2013. Who are they, where are they located and what do they want from the country’s political and economic systems? There is no doubt that the military remains Pakistan’s most powerful institution. Three, Pakistan has moved towards competitive politics. The system will not be dominated by one party but by several representing different segments of the population. Those who support the MMA resent that the Pakistani state has not become Islamic. Pakistan’s population today is seven times its size at the time of the country’s birth. When Ayub Khan decided to move the capital to northern Punjab, a large number of these jobs were lost. It is important to note that this was a youth movement expressing resentment. The Pakistan Peoples Party, which also has its origin in the politics of resentment, has moved on and become a party anchored in rural Sindh.

KAMALIA: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday criticised Imran Khan for voting in favour Asif Ali Zardari's candidate for deputy chairman in the Senate elections, despite having lambasted the former president on numerous occasions. "Bilawal says that Imran uncle would again vote for the Peoples Party," he told participants at a gathering in Kamalia tehsil of Toba Tek Singh district in Punjab. "Who is Imran trying to fool?" The Punjab chief minister said that their opponents always did politics of sit-in and shutdowns. He vowed to end this politics of allegations in the forthcoming elections. Shehbaz further attacked the PTI's "negative" style of politics, saying that the Imran Khan-led party's "politics of anarchy" is a conspiracy against the people of Pakistan. "We will have to end personal conflicts, false accusations and blame games, if we are to achieve Quaid's vision of Pakistan," the acting PML-N president continued. Highlighting the progress achieved during the past five years under PML-N's tenure, Shehbaz vowed that load-shedding will be eliminated by the end of the ongoing year. Since 2013, when PML-N came to power, it has invested in thousands of megawatts of power, he said. The minister vowed that if given another chance at government, the party will bring the Metro Bus service to Faisalabad.

DIR: Awami National Party (ANP) Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan said on Thursday that decency in politics ended with the start of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's political career. “He does not stand behind even a single thing he says,” Wali said referring to the PTI chairman’s changing statements. “Did he not say that Nawaz and Zardari are two sides of the same coin?” Wali added that Imran had asked members from his party to vote for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the recent Senate elections. According to the ANP chief, Imran had appealed to PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to give the Senate opposition leader seat to him but was refused. Wali stressed that Imran talks of ending corruption but does not name parliamentarians from his party who were sold during the Senate elections. The ANP chief was also critical of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), stating that Pashtuns were not being given any part of it. “Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, you should not call this China Pakistan Economic but rather China Punjab Economic Corridor.”