ISLAMABAD: Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government would not complete its five-year tenure.
The former president made the remarks while speaking to journalists, following his appearance in the Islamabad accountability court earlier today.
“Those who brought Prime Minister Imran Khan are now admitting that they committed a mistake,” said the former president, adding that they are now figuring out how to undo that mistake. “Only Almighty Allah knows best how to fix this mistake,” Zardari added.
Replying to a question about ex-chief justice Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim’s affidavit, Zardari said, “We have already seen this. In the past, Justice Qayyum had tape phone calls with Saifur Rehman and some friends.”
He was referring to a telephonic conversation between ex-senator Saifur Rehman and Justice (retd) Abdul Qayyum, calling it substantial evidence of the falsity of cases instituted by the previous governments against assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto and Zardari.
When asked about Maryam Nawaz’s petition, the PPP leader refused to comment and said that “Maryam is like a daughter to me.”
A division bench of the Islamabad High Court comprising IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Amir Farooq heard the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) appeal against Zardari’s gold reference and Ursus tractors deal.
The NAB prosecutor, in two references against the former president, sought a month’s time to prepare his arguments on his appeals pending since 2014.
The IHC approved a two-week deadline for the NAB prosecutor to finalise his arguments, warning NAB that if it fails to prepare arguments by that time, then the court will decide on the existing record available with it.
