Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Asif Zardari on Monday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan supports Afghans because he allegedly got them included in the voter lists, Dawn newspaper reported.
The former president also hinted at the possibility of a “little delay” in the elections but said his party had no problem with it.
During an interview on Aaj TV, he said Afghan citizens were registered as voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the past to facilitate PTI.
“He (Imran Khan) supports Afghans because he had made fake lists (of voters) and they (Afghans) had been declared as Pakistani citizens,” Zardari said.
The PPP leader, while responding to a question, disclosed that the Election Commission was taking care of this issue, adding that he had already directed his party to take up the matter with the electoral watchdog, Dawn reported.
He criticised Imran Khan for allegedly supporting the opening of the offices of the banned Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the country and said the PTI leader was doing it to get political advantage.
Zardari said that it was a former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) who was behind the project of launching a cricketer in politics.
He alleged that Khan also had support from foreign lobbies, adding that his ex-wife was still behind him and that she had been propagating the PTI founder as a popular leader through bloggers.
The PPP leader criticised Khan and even called him an “illiterate” person. He claimed that after submission of the no-confidence resolution against Khan in 2022, the PTI through a common friend had approached him and offered him to share half of the PTI government’s remaining tenure, which he refused, terming the move “too late”, according to Dawn.
In response to a question, Zardari hinted at the possibility of a little delay in the 8 February elections but said “elections will certainly be held”.