KARACHI, Oct 17: Pakistan People's Party secretary-general Jehangir Badar has demanded that steps be taken to bring back former president retired general Pervez Musharraf so that he can be tried for his involvement in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Speaking at a meeting organised by the PPP in connection with the 'Yaum-i-difah-i-jamhooriat' (defence of democracy day) to mark the Oct 18, 2007 bomb blasts at Karsaz on Benazir Bhutto's welcome-home procession, he said the inquiry conducted by the United Nations team into the Rawalpindi killing of Ms Bhutto had put the responsibility on the government led by retired general Musharraf.

Responding to such charged slogans as “Benazir's murderers be tried”; “Benazir, we regret that your assassins are still unpunished”, he said that he was aware of the party's policy on the issue but yet looking at the demand of workers. He would ask the government to make efforts and bring back the dictator with the help of Interpol for his trial, he said.

He lauded sacrifices of party workers and said that the PPP had two centres of power — the top leadership (the Bhuttos) and the common workers — who had struggled hard and sacrificed their lives while many of the so-called big leaders of the party joined hands with dictators Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf.

He said it were the workers who stood by the party and the Bhuttos throughout the testing times.

Accepting that after the restoration of democracy some of the leaders had become ministers or had taken some other official assignments / benefits, etc, but grievances of an overwhelming majority of the party workers had not been addressed, he advised the local PPP leadership to set up an in-house forum where ministers were regularly called in to hear workers' complaints and solve their problems.

He said the struggle that started between the haves and the have-nots nearly six decades ago still continued and one day soon the poor led by the PPP workers, who had been fighting under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then Benazir Bhutto, would succeed under the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and snatch their rights from the clutches of anti-democratic forces. He said the PPP had been in the forefront of the movement for the restoration of judges and Benazir Bhutto had raised slogans herself for it, so it was unthinkable that the party would offend or oppose the judiciary it had restored.

He also said that some politicians who overnight turned democrats had been “licking shoes of the dictators not long ago”.

Federal Labour Minister Khursheed Shah said that certain forces had not yet accepted the government of the true representatives of the people so whenever a true representative government came they started counting days of its departure.

He said that now it had been accepted widely that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was “judicially murdered”; why the superior judiciary was not taking any suo motu action on that judgment and see if that had been passed judiciously.

He said the NRO was being condemned but nobody was seeing that owing to it a true democracy had returned to the country and the dictator had to leave first the presidential palace and subsequently the country.

He said that 80 per cent of bills passed through parliament had been passed with a consensus because the PPP was following the policy of reconciliation.

He accepted that there might have been some limitations or shortcomings and some of the leaders / ministers might have not come up to the expectations of the workers, but from day one hurdles had been put in the path of the government so that it could not provide good governance.

He said the government had enhanced the salaries of the government servants by 50 per cent and had also given jobs to thousands of jobless youths.

Responding to the audience, who immediately raised slogans that jobs were being sold away, he condemned those who indulged in such activities and urged the audience to expose such elements.

Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro said that whenever political forces joined hands to strengthen democracy, certain forces did not like it and moved to destabilise the democratic process and create a sense of uncertainty among the masses.

He said that currently the courts were calling the democratic government on a daily basis and asking questions but no questions were asked when the dictators ruled as they were even given legitimacy.

Retired general Musharraf was even given three years to rule and do whatever he wished to do, he said.

He said the workers had a deep and sincere commitment with the party and no matter what others said — that the leaders were not listening to workers, etc — to mislead them, the workers would not betray the party as they had proved their commitment through their continuous attachment and sacrifices for it.

Earlier, other speakers criticised the government and said it was not giving the good governance and the common party workers who had given sacrifices had been left high and dry while newcomers, some of whom had even opposed the party sometime back, had virtually taken over the party.

In the name of reconciliation the party had been bowing to its allies who always arm-twisted it to get their demands accepted, they said.

This kind of blackmailing politics must end, they said.

They urged the leadership to run the party and the government on the principles given by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, and try to recognise and differentiate between the true and sincere workers and opportunists.

Senior journalists Shamim-ur-Rehman and Imtiaz Faran, Fateh Burfat, Najmi Alam and others also spoke at the meeting conducted by Saeed Ghani.