ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari said the arrest of PPP candidate in South Waziristan is tantamount to rigging in the elections.

He said Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should ensure release of Imran Wazir to save its credibility.

The PPP leader said the arrest of candidate during the process of election campaign is condemnable and leaves a question mark on the credibility of elections. He said, however these arrests cannot lower the courage of PPP workers.

He said Maryam Nawaz is like our daughter but our view point is the final decision will be made by APC instead of a single party.

Answering a question, he said how one can imagine that the reconciliation process has started. Responding to another question Zardari said PPP stands with the decisions of APC instead of Nawaz or Shehbaz.

Replying to a question put to him by a journalist at the Parliament House where he was brought by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to enable him to attend the National Assembly’s budget session, the former president Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday it is the joint opposition that will make a decision about charter of economy with the government.

When asked to comment on PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz’s statement terming the charter a mockery of economy, he said: “Maryam Bibi is our daughter. Our ideology is that it is for the joint opposition to take whatever decision. There won’t be any single party’s decision.”

To a question of whether he sided with the narrative of Nawaz Sharif or Shehbaz Sharif, he said he will abide by the united opposition’s narrative.

Addressing a press conference a day earlier, Maryam had said she considered this “meesaq-e-maeeshat” (charter of economy) as “mazaq-e-maeeshat.”

She maintained offering charter of economy to Imran Khan is like giving him an NRO as he, due to his incompetence, caused irreparable damage to the economy and now wanted opposition to become a part of his failure on economic front. —NNI