PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday denied that any efforts were being made for the opposition parties to come together in a "grand alliance" against the government.
The matter was raised during a press conference in Lahore in which the party chief was asked if the expected outcome of a meeting held between party president Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman a day earlier was a "grand alliance" among various parties in the opposition.
"Sadar Zardari holds frequent meetings with Maulana sahab and yes something does come of those meetings each time, but I do not believe any efforts are being made towards a grand alliance. We are focusing on issues-based politics and trying to find common ground," said Bilawal.
The PPP leader was asked why after being named in a report by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigating the Rs35 billion fake accounts case, instead of responding to the allegations, he was deflecting them by talking about other issues such as the 18th Amendment. Bilawal responded by saying: "I believe we are responding to the allegations. I even did a whole speech on the matter. And where will we respond? This is a legal issue and we respond to legal issues in court."
"We are not going to be part of any media trial. We are giving our rebuttal in courts. Political attacks on us are being responded to politically, legal issues are being tackled with legal responses," he said.
Bilawal said the "fake and false" JIT report was nothing but a sham, with political motivations behind it. "Political engineering is their motive, and they want to use the courts for this purpose." he said.