**PML-Q set to smear Asif Zardari **
- Elahi asks ticket holders to start anti-Zardari and anti-Shahbaz campaigns
- Blames Zardari and Shahbaz for masterminding riots and looting
By Ali Waqar
LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)’s 2008 election campaign following the death of Benazir Bhutto is all set to become a flagrant mudslinging affair. The party is gearing up attempts to affix the blame for Benazir’s assassination on her widower, now Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, party insiders told Daily Times on Wednesday.
At an official meeting of the party’s provincial assembly ticket holders, PML-Q Punjab chief Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi directed the party’s ticket holders to resume their election campaigns — which were suspended after Benazirr’s killing — on an anti-Zardari and anti-Shahbaz Sharif line. The new slogans devised for the PML-Q election campaign are: “We want Quaid’s Pakistan not Zardari, the plunderer’s, Pakistan,” and “Save Pakistan from Zardari”.
Insiders said Elahi called the meeting to discuss shifts in the party’s election campaign in the wake of Benazir’s assassination, particularly to devise a strategy to counter the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s indirect finger pointing at the PML-Q for killing their party chairwoman.
A clear line has been given by the party leadership to ticket holders to start a negative campaign against Zardari. This will include demands that he be investigated in the assassination case, defaming Zardari by highlighting charges of corruption against him, and objecting to the secrecy surrounding Benazir’s will, the party insiders said. The objective of the blame game is to deflect the criticism from PML-Q by alleging Zardari’s involvement in his wife’s killing by playing up his suspicious role in taking over the PPP, the PML-Q insiders said.
Direct accusations: Later, at a press conference held at the Pakistan Muslim League House, Elahi directly accused Zardari of planning riots and violence in Sindh after Benazir’s assassination. He also blamed PML-Nawaz President Shahbaz Sharif for orchestrating the ransacking of the PML-Q office in Punjab.
PML-Q leaders Raja Muhammad Basharat and Kamil Ali Aga, who flanked Elahi at the briefing, supported demands for an international investigation into Benazir’s assassination.
They also highlighted Benazir’s will, which surfaced all of a sudden. They demanded that it be made public, and that international investigators scrutinise the document, particularly Benazir’s signature. Pointing out Zardari’s alleged involvement in the murder of Benazir’s brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s, Elahi asked why international investigators were rejected by the sitting prime minister at the time. Elahi also distributed a copy of a Washington Post article, dated December 31, which criticised Zardari after he became the PPP co-chairman. The article highlights Zardari’s bad reputation within and outside his party.
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\01\03\story_3-1-2008_pg7_6
THIS IS A GREAT AND BRAVE MOVE BY THE PMLQ, ZADARI MUST BE
EXPOSED, WE ALL KNOW HE MURDERED BB AND CAUSED THE RIOTS.
I HOPE HE IS EXPOSED BEFORE ELECTIONS