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 partyÂ’s election campaign in the wake of BenazirÂ’s assassination, particularly to devise a strategy to counter the Pakistan PeopleÂ’s Party (PPP)Â’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 BenazirÂ’s will, the party insiders said. The objective of the blame game is to deflect the criticism from PML-Q by alleging ZardariÂ’s involvement in his wifeÂ’s killing by playing up his suspicious role in taking over the PPP, the PML-Q insiders said.