ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto said that he has never termed Mutahida Quami Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as traitors.
Bilawal, while addressing the media after a meeting with Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said that Altaf Hussain was a political reality in Karachi. “I have never called Altaf uncle as a traitor,” he said.
He said that Nawaz was a democratically elected prime minister and would never call him a traitor. He said that he was taken out of context when he spoke about Sharif’s association with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, he admitted he has several political differences with Nawaz on issues such as the foreign policy and counter terrorism efforts.
When asked about whether the MQM supremo remained a political reality after the party disassociated from him, he said such conspiracies were being hatched since a long time. “I heard someone say yesterday that there should be another minus one in my family,” said the PPP chairman.
This was a direct jibe at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan – who had called for PPP to disassociate from former president Asif Ali Zardari for his collusion with Nawaz Sharif.
When asked if his party will still work alongside the PTI over the Panama Papers investigation, Bilawal said that they will continue to work with any political party despite their political differences.
