Expressing confidence that the next general elections will be held on time, former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that an increasing number of independent candidates will contest the upcoming polls and that their role will be important in formation of the next government.
In an interview on Geo News programme Jirga aired yesterday, he also hinted that no party would get a simple majority in the National Assembly in the general elections.
However, he said the PPP would emerge as the single largest parliamentary party after the 2018 elections and form a coalition with independent candidates who would return to the assembly.
In reply to a question, he said he was optimistic, but not absolutely sure, that the general elections would be held in a free, fair and transparent manner.
“I don’t consider the PTI a [political] party,” Zardari told interviewer Saleem Safi when the latter contested the politician’s claim that the PPP would win more seats than the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
He also did not rule out making a coalition with like-minded parties, including the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or Muttahida Qaumi Movement groups, after the general elections.
He said that if people are leaving the PPP, there is no “tax” on those leaving or joining the party.
Zardari said that although ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif is now conceding all his mistakes and sending him “50 messages” of reconciliation, he is not ready to trust the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader.
When told that Sharif is talking about a new social contract, Zardari said: “Qadam Barhao (move ahead) Nawaz Sharif, we are not with you.”
The former president said that Sharif did injustice with democratic forces as well as with parliament: “Some friends ask as to why I have friendship with [Maulana] Fazlur Rehman. He is at present [our] political opponent, but I trust Fazl as he will never deceive after giving his word.”
About allegations of “horse-trading” in the March 3 Senate elections, Zardari said that he only used his connections and influence to get votes for his party candidates.
About Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, he said it was their decision to get an independent senator from Baluchistan elected.
Zardari said he “is Sadiq, so he is needed”.
He, however, hoped that Sanjrani would stand by them.
Maintaining that he was not angry with former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani, Zardari said that the 18th Amendment in the Constitution was in fact an achievement of the PPP and Rabbani only drafted it.
The former president said the incumbent army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, is more successful compared to other generals and this is despite a widely-held view that other generals are wiser.
He also gave Bajwa credit for “thinking” of fencing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, ignoring the fact that the project to prevent unauthorised crossings from the neighbouring country was conceived and announced during the tenure of former army chief, retired General Raheel Sharif.
Zardari had to leave the country during Raheel’s tenure after he delivered a hard-hitting speech in June 2015 in which he warned the military establishment against creating problems for his party; otherwise “we would tear you down brick by brick”.
He said if he sees any role of the army in politics, he will “educate” it instead of confronting it.
About the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said that besides retired General Pervez Musharraf, many “internal and external” forces were involved.
When the interviewer said that he failed to understand as to how Musharraf made contact with outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, Zardari interrupted and said: “Someone else contacted Baitullah.”