PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that politicians cannot be kept out of politics for a longer period as it would affect the democratic system.

“People like him [Asad Umar] quitting politics raise the question whether he did it genuinely?” he said in an interview with Shaukat Piracha on his show Rubaroo which was aired on Aaj News on Saturday.

The former planning minister announced his decision early on Saturday. Once a close aide of former prime minister Imran Khan, Umar also resigned from the PTI.

He is the latest to part ways with the Khan-led party. Many of the PTI leaders have either said goodbye to politics or joined a new party following the May 9 events when violent protest broke out after the first arrest of the former prime minister in the graft case from within the premises of Islamabad High Court.

In his post, the former planning minister stated that confrontation with state institutions was not in the interest of the country.

Kaira while making his point on the query said that past experiences have shown that if people reject a politician it is different. “Otherwise politicians can be left out of politics temporarily but not for a longer time and ultimately the democratic system suffers. These things are not likened by many responsible people in our country. But the history lesson is this and we should learn this.”

He went on to add that the people involved in the May 9 events should be tried in courts and if found guilty should be punished. The PPP leader added that the trial should be speedy and transparent.

According to Kaira, people should not tried in the court of law for being associated with a party or for their comments.

When asked, he said that President Arif Alvi writing a letter to interim PM Anwaarul Haq Kakar to raise PTI’s concerns about the alleged lack of a level playing field for political parties was “unfortunate”.

He was of the view that the president apparently has not come out of his role of being a member of the PTI. Kaira added that it would have been better if Alvi had asked the PTI to approach the right forum to raise their concerns.

On Friday, the caretaker government and the polls overseer criticised the president for writing the letter.

Kaira admitted that there were many questions related to the current situation but the letter of Alvi raised many questions.

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In response to a query related to Tahirul Qadri’s sit-in, Kaira said that the old cases should be discussed but the “characters should be forgotten”. He said that opening all old incidents might be good for the future but it would lead to an “institutional tussle”.

The PPP leader expressed hope that the incarcerated Imran Khan would have changed his nature of not listening to others’ opinions as he did during the 2014 sit-in.

Kaira was of the view that the alliance among the PML-N, GDA, and MQM-P was part of politics and politicians also opted for the post-election alliance.

“You cannot principally oppose it and we also can have alliance but we have a past where parties are connected and broken. The outside forces are more dangerous,” he said and warned that any party’s tolerance would be tested if efforts were made to target a party by such alliances.

“There should not be any effort to steal the mandate. The king’s party is in Punjab not in Sindh,” he said.

Kaira said: “Many parties came to power because of someone and we came to power in spite of someone.”