Islamabad/Karachi:
Pakistan People's Party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari described cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan as a "coward" who makes excuses for terrorists, prompting his party to term the Bhutto family scion a "spoilt brat".
The 25-year-old Bilawal said the PPP was not like the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf led by the "cowardly" Khan.
He told a group of charged supporters in Karachi that Mr Khan "stood outside a church and made excuses for the terrorists who were responsible for the attack" in Peshawar that killed over 80 people on September 21.
Bilawal was referring to the attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar by two suicide bombers that was claimed by a Taliban faction.
"PPP will save the people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from drowning in the tsunami," he said, referring to the Tehrik-e-Insaf's claim that it would unleash a tsunami to bring about changes. Reacting to Bilawal's remarks, the Tehrik-e-Insaf said the Bhutto family scion "hides in rooms from where he records his speeches" but had the gall to call Khan cowardly.
"Bilawal Zardari (is) a spoilt brat who calls himself a 'leader' only because of his mother and Nana," the party said in a statement.
Mr Khan is a leader of the people who "neither hides behind closed doors nor bulletproof screens" and goes into crowds. Mr Khan was also a brave leader who had not inherited a "position by virtue of birth", the statement said.
The statement said Bilawal "needs to wake up from his stupor to understand that the PTI tsunami is already here to wipe out the corruption of his father and the PPP".
It alleged the PPP is "so deficit in leadership that it has to keep relying on the martyrdom" of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto to gain the attention of people.