RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: A smiling jailed former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday finally broke his silence over opposition defections in recent no-confidence motion against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, saying, “Those defected came from different backgrounds.”

Talking to journalists inside the Parliament House after Speaker National Assembly issued his production orders, the PPP leader said, “Some of them [defecting senators] were with someone else while others had links with someone else.”

In an obvious reference to the affiliation of the senators, who witched their loyalties, with the powerful establishment and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for one reason or another, he said, “They [defecting senators] don’t belong to one single party, as they are spread all over.”

The PPP co-chairman who turned up in the parliament for a brief period after the session was adjourned, skipped questions about his alleged role in saving the sinking boat of Sanjrani who miraculously survived a no-confidence motion.

Talking to journalists outside the Parliament House, Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said special status of occupied Kashmir is revoked in an undemocratic way.

He said they would present their stance on the issue in the joint session of the Parliament in a befitting way, adding PM Narendra Modi comes from an extremist RSS and is known as “butcher of Gujarat.”

“Modi is now becoming butcher of Kashmir, and we’d already informed the world about his character when he took oath as PM [in 2014],” he added.

He also questioned Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying where his Kashmir committee head and why he doesn’t take up the issue when cluster bombing is taking place inside AJK.