Tag: Zardari

Pak faces ‘uphill task’ to try & get Kashmir into ‘centre’ of UN’s agenda: FM Zardari

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United Nations: Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has admitted that Islamabad faces an “uphill task” to get the Kashmir issue into the “centre” of the agenda of the United Nations.
Zardari also fumbled as he went on to refer to India, describing it first as “our friend” before using the term “neighbouring” country.
“You’re also right to note that we face a particularly uphill task to try and get Kashmir into the centre of the agenda at the United Nations,” Zardari said at a press conference here on Friday, responding to a question that drew parallels between the situation in Palestine with Kashmir.
Pakistan rakes up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at every UN forum and platform, irrespective of the topic or agenda being discussed.
However, it fails to get any traction or support for its agenda from the wider UN membership that considers Kashmir to be a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
“And whenever the issue of Kashmir is brought up, our friends within, with.. our friend our.. our neighbouring countries, strongly object, vociferously object and they perpetuate a post-fact narrative where they try to claim that this is not a dispute for the United Nations, that this is not a disputed territory recognised for the international community,” the 34-year-old Pakistani foreign minister said.
Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was an internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

India has told Pakistan that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.
Zardari said “while we do find it difficult to get the truth across, we are persistent in our efforts” and added that at every opportunity, whether it is in the UN Security Council or other events, he makes the effort to mention both the plight of the people of Palestine and of Kashmir.
“I think your parallel is very justified. There are many similarities between the plight of the people of Kashmir and the plight of the people of Palestine. I think it’s fair to say that both issues remain unaddressed by the United Nations and we’d like to see an extra focus not only on Palestine but also on Kashmir,” he added.
Zardari was addressing the media here on the outcome of the Women in Islam Conference and Commemoration of the First Islamophobia Day, on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 11, 2023
Imran Khan’s ally arrested for accusing Zardari of plotting to kill former premier

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Islamabad: Pakistani police on Thursday arrested former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed from his home for accusing ex-president Asif Ali Zardari of plotting to kill former prime minister Imran Khan.
An ally of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Ahmed is the chief of Awami Muslim League (AML).
His nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafique said that the AML chief was arrested from his home in a private housing society in Islamabad.
The former minister was arrested by Islamabad police in the early hours of Thursday in connection with remarks he made against former president Zardari, accusing him of hatching a “murder plot to eliminate PTI chief Imran Khan”.
Sheikh Rashid was later presented before the court of Judicial Magistrate Omar Shabbir who granted the police two-day physical remand of the AML chief.
The police had requested his eight-day remand for investigation.
Sheikh Rashid was arrested on a police complaint filed by Raja Inayat-ur-Rehman, a vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in a television interview on January 27, alleged that Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Zardari got the assistance of some terrorists to kill Khan.
Khan also in a television address on January 27 had alleged that Zardari was behind a fresh assassination plot a “plan C” and a terror group had been engaged for the purpose. He offered no evidence to back up his accusation.

Sheikh Rashid in fact had repeated what Imran Khan had said in his television address.
Zardari rejected the allegations and also sent a legal notice to Khan to apologize and take back the accusations or a case of damages would be filed against him.
According to a video clip of the arrested leader, he alleged that police ransacked his house and thrashed domestic staffers while attempting to arrest him. He also vowed to challenge his arrest in the high court.
He also alleged that some (personnel) used ladders to enter his house. He went on to say that he had been arrested despite getting relief from the Islamabad High Court.
He claimed that lawyer Mian Tahir had secured his bail and went on to allege that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was behind the incident.
Reacting to the arrest, Khan said: “Never in our history have we had such a biased, vindictive caretaker government appointed by totally discredited the ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan). The question is: can Pak afford a street movement which we are being pushed towards at a time when we have been bankrupted by imported government?”
The FIR filed against the AML leader claimed that Ahmed’s statement was made as part of a conspiracy to defame the former president and create a permanent threat to his family.
“He wants to create conflict and enmity between two groups PPP and PTI with this fabricated and baseless conspiracy so that the peace of the country can be disturbed,” it added.
Islamabad Police had on Wednesday summoned Ahmed to appear before it today in connection with the case. However, the Islamabad High Court suspended the notice.
The court also issued notices to the Islamabad police chief and asked him to nominate a senior officer who could apprise the high court of the facts related to the case. The former interior minister had claimed that he had “inside information of the murder conspiracy” and that the former president had allegedly hired “assassins to kill Imran Khan”.
In the petition, Sheikh Rashid challenged the notice issued to him by the local police and dubbed the notice as contradictory to different provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. Further hearing has been adjourned until February 6.
Sheikh Rashid served as interior minister when Khan was prime minister and claims that he has served 16 times as minister in various governments.
His arrest comes amid a raft of legal moves against PTI leaders and their allies.
Last week, PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry was arrested for allegedly making threats against election commission members’ families. He was later released on bail. A sedition case was filed against former PTI lawmaker Shandana Gulzar Khan.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 2, 2023
Asif Ali Zardari sends Rs 10 bn legal notice to Imran Khan

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Islamabad: Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Monday sent a Pak Rs 10 billion legal notice to former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, local media reported.
In the notice, sent by Naek and Associates acting on behalf of their client Asif Ali Zardari, it was stated that Imran Khan in a public address which was widely-reported across the world had accused Zardari of “false, fabricated and scandalous remarks/statements as well as leveled baseless allegations of serious nature” that he had paid his corruption money to a terrorist organisation being supported by powerful state agency facilitators to launch another fatal attack on Khan, Samaa TV reported.
The notice read that the “baseless accusations” were of “malicious and defamatory nature” that tried to defame Zardari nationally as well as internationally, the report said.
“Through your defamatory, libelous and scandalous remarks and allegations of serious nature, you have tried to create a link between our client and terrorist organisations blindly disregarding the fact that our client and his party has remained the victim of terrorism,” the notice read.
Further, it said that Zardari’s wife and former Prime Minister late Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated by terrorists, Samaa TV reported.
“In your statements, you have stated that our client, through corruption money, is hatching a fresh plan to allegedly assassinate you despite the fact that our client has languished in prison for almost eight years in false, fabricated, trumped up and concocted cases, including corruption cases, and not one of which was proved against him and he was acquitted in all those cases honourably.”
The notice termed Khan’s statements as “made with malafide intentions and ulterior motives to injure, harm, defame and disparage the reputation and name of our client who has made sacrifices for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan”.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 30, 2023
Imran Khan accuses Zardari of paying terrorists to assassinate him

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Lahore: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday accused ex-president Asif Ali Zardari of paying terrorists and hatching a fresh plan along with people in the country’s powerful intelligence agencies to assassinate him after the previous two attempts failed.
Khan, during a virtual press conference from his Lahore’s Zaman Park residence here, said that there were three more names along with Zardari, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-Chairman, who are part of this new plot.
“I am telling you this because if something happens to me the nation should know the people who were behind this so that the nation never forgives them,” Khan, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said.
“Now they have made a Plan C, and Asif Zardari is behind this. He has an ample amount of corruption money, which he loots from the Sindh government and spends on winning elections. He has given money to a terrorist outfit and people from powerful agencies are facilitating him. This has been decided on three fronts and they will act soon,” he claimed.
Khan’s claim comes against the backdrop of the government’s withdrawal of his additional security from his Lahore residence.
“At least 275 policemen deployed at Khan’s residence have been withdrawn,” a government official told PTI on Friday.
He said both security personnel of Islamabad and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa police have been recalled and now only Punjab police cops are deployed for his security.
“Earlier, in a public rally, I had told my supporters that there were four people who had planned to kill me [ ] but they backed off when I made these revelations,” Khan said.

Then a “plan B” was made to “eliminate” me in the name of religion, Khan continued, referring to the attack on his life in Wazirabad. “But I got to know about that too and I revealed their plan in two public rallies.”
Khan suffered bullet injuries in the right leg on November 3 when gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him and others standing on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area (some 150 kilometres from Lahore), where he was leading the long march to press for snap polls.
Khan, 70, had earlier blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer of ISI for that plot.
He said that the nation should be aware of who was behind his assassination bid so “they cannot enjoy their lives after they have done this”.
He went on to say that irrespective of whatever was planned, he would be back in the streets as soon as he recovered from the injuries he had sustained during the Wazirabad attack.
“My (bullet) injury will be healed in two weeks or so and take to the streets against this fascist government of Shehbaz Sharif.”
“The nation is looking towards the judiciary as this is a decisive moment,” Khan said, mentioning that since his ouster, several people have been unmasked.
Meanwhile, the PPP has dismissed Khan’s allegation and announced that it will take him to court.
“This is a frivolous allegation of a frustrated man and we will take Imran Khan to court,” Farooq Saeed, the party’s Punjab president, said.
Following the rupee’s historic fall against the US dollar in the country, the PTI chief during the press conference also hit out at the incumbent government and predicted hyperinflation and “insurmountable” economic challenges in days to come.
“During the past three days, the local unit plunged by Rs33 against the US dollar,” he said. “The rupee fell by Rs84 during the last nine months.”
While giving the reasons behind the devaluation of the local currency, the deposed prime minister said that the country’s foreign currency reserves have reached a record low. “Foreign currency reserves sink to USD 3.6 billion.”
Khan also lambasted Prime Minister Sharif, saying that he has now become aware of what sort of a “genius” Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar is.
The Pakistani rupee extended its downward trend today with the local currency plunging Rs7.17, or 2.73 per cent, against the US dollar in the interbank market as the government eased its control over the currency to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release a pending loan tranche.
“Those who will bailout Pakistan out of this condition [ ] remember that they will ask for a price. The International Monetary Fund has asked Egypt and Sri Lanka to reduce their armies [ ] it can ask us to do the same,” Khan said.
Facing an acute balance of payments crisis, Pakistan is desperate to secure external financing, with less than three weeks’ worth of import cover in its foreign exchange reserves, which fell USD 923 million to USD 3.68 billion in the latest data.
Pakistan secured a USD 6 billion IMF bailout in 2019. It was topped up with another USD 1 billion last year to help the country following devastating floods, but the IMF then suspended disbursements in November due to Pakistan’s failure to make more progress on fiscal consolidation.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 27, 2023