"You can't threaten us or force us away," PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari told Nawaz Sharif's PML-N as he addressed a gathering in Mirpurkhas to mark Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's 90th birth anniversary.

"Pakistan faces problems because unqualified leaders were brought to rule the country," the former president said.

The speech also included an underhanded insult directed at the incumbent foreign minister. Terming the current deterioration in the US-Pakistan relationship a result of the absence of a full-time foreign minister, the former president criticised the PML-N for finally appointing one "who speaks English in Punjabi".

"This person will take your narrative to the world and they will listen," he said sarcastically. "If you had to appoint a foreign minister you should have at least appointed someone who the world would understand."

Moving to the next hot topic for debate, Zardari mocked Nawaz Sharif for stating that he will "spill the secrets", when "you are the biggest secret." Explaining the remark, he alleged that Nawaz had managed to get 112,000 votes even though he had given tickets to people who could not even win a union council election seat — with the insinuation being that this was made possible by election rigging.

"When the people said we cannot win seats, you [Nawaz Sharif] said we will make you win," Zardari alleged.

"You are fighting against your own establishment and rallying against your own government, and using the security protocol provided to you by them at the same time," Zardari wryly pointed out.

He said that Nawaz should probably ask "his prime minister" to resign if he cannot run the government and should refrain from sending the PPP messages which he thinks can scare them away.

Remembering Bhutto on his birth anniversary, Zardari also stated that while he could not himself claim to be a Bhutto, "I do claim that his [Bhutto's] spirit has become manifest in me."