Discussing the upcoming Senate elections, former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari expressed confidence that the PPP will form a majority in Senate after the elections.
While addressing PPP’s Sindh lawmakers and Senate hopefuls, he said: “PPP’s elected MPs are my strength. I am proud of my party members, the incumbent government has to go.”
The ex-president was speaking on the occasion of a dinner party hosted by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in honour of the party’s members of the Sindh Assembly.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, Mehmood Chaudhry, and Asifa Bhutto-Zardari were present during the dinner.
Last week, in a telephonic conversation between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Zardari, the PML-N supreme leader had assured the PPP co-chairman of all possible support during the upcoming Senate elections.
According to sources, Nawaz and Zardari had discussed the political situation, the upcoming elections of the upper house of parliament and the long march of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
The PML-N supremo had also talked to former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, who has been fielded as a joint candidate of the opposition alliance from Islamabad.
Sources had also claimed that Yousuf will also call on Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif in jail to discuss matters of mutual interest, including the Senate polls.
Similarly, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief and PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Zardari on February 19 had discussed the country’s overall situation and strategy for upcoming Senate polls, INP reported.
In a telephonic conversation, Zardari and Fazl had exchanged views on the upcoming Senate polls and the anti-government long march.
The consultation had also been made on the Senate candidates from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and other provinces, it emerged. Matters pertaining to the campaign for former prime minister Gillani for the upcoming Senate elections had also come under discussion.
Two weeks prior, Fazl had also discussed the country’s political situation including long march with the former prime minister Nawaz.
Earlier this month, Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khan Khattak had said that Fazl, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Zardari would be behind bars soon.
Khattak had said that Fazl was running a protest movement to save Nawaz and Zardari, adding that protest by the opposition had no justification and that the government would not be blackmailed through such tactics.
He had said that the opposition should initiate a long march to fulfil its wish. He had also said that leaders of opposition parties could stay in Islamabad as long as they wished. He had added that the government would come in action if they took law in their hand.
