Islamabad, Oct 29 (IANS): Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has been threatened by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to be ready to be hanged "upside down" or "resign and return looted national wealth", a media report said Saturday.

PML-N leaders Friday addressed a gathering in Lahore, where Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif "took acerbity and fiery rhetoric to its limits" in his denunciation of the president, the daily Dawn reported.

Sharif "laced his speech with all ingredients needed for firing up a public meeting" -- accusations of sleaze, insults, poetry and talk of the gallows.

"Resign and return looted national wealth. Otherwise, my comrades will hang you (Zardari) upside down," the chief minister said.

Sharif led a chorus of "Go Zardari, go" and said parliament would hold the president accountable.

He called Zardari an "Ali Baba" and his colleagues "forty thieves", referring to the story in the "Arabian Nights" where the robbers looted people and hid their wealth in a secret cave location.

He alleged the president had no empathy for the country or its people and was interested only in corruption.

Sharif vowed that the "war" would end only after overthrowing Zardari and laying the "foundations of a new Pakistan".

"We will rid the country of Zardari and his corrupt team in the way our elders had broken free from the clutches of Hindus in 1947," he said.