LARKANA: Sindh Senior Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that former president Pervez Musharraf is not threat to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

“He heads an unpopular party... he is and will remain controversial in politics,” he said while speaking at a press conference at the local press club on Monday.

Mr Khuhro declared in unequivocal terms that the question of PPP-Mushrraf becoming one simply did not arise. “Despite being on bail, Mushrraf is active in social activities but it makes no difference,” the PPP leader said.

Also read: Musharraf conspiring to destabilise Sindh govt: Zardari

The PPP, he said, was here to fight conspiracies [being hatched against it] and it had the track record of foiling negative moves. If anyone was hatching conspiracies, he would definitely bite the dust as such conspiracies would cast no impact on the party.

Mr Khuhro also rejected rumours regarding a ‘forward bloc’ within the PPP being in the offing, and emphatically said said: “The PPP is united”.

He expressed his optimism that Makhdoom Amin Fahim, being a senior party leader, would neither form a forward bloc nor would he make any attempt to weaken the party. He referred to Makhdoom’s speech at the programme held in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto to observe the seventh death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27, and said that he (Makhdoom Fahim) categorically reaffirmed his association with the PPP while reminding the audience that he remained with the party through all thick and thin.

In reply to a question, Mr Khuhro said after Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s latest message on Twitter, all rumours including those about differences between him and his father, Asif Ali Zardari, should die down.

Commenting on another issue, Mr Khuhro said establishing military courts in a democratic set-up was not good, but added in the same breath had the judiciary been convicting terrorists in the past, there would have been no need today for military courts. In the wake of the massacre at the Peshawar Army Public School, the decision of setting up military courts was not inappropriate.

Replying to another questioner, he said that a draft pertaining to military courts was yet to be tabled in the parliament, and held out the assurance that the “PPP will ensure that it [the law] will not be misused and will be applicable for a limited period”.

The PPP leader also criticised the Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz for his illogical statement regarding the Peshawar carnage, and said he [the Maulana] should feel ashamed on his stance.

In reply to another question, Mr Khuhro said one should have no objection over establishment of a private university and naming it after Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain. He argued that the Sindh government was making efforts towards promotion of higher education.

He said more than 20,000 teachers had so far been recruited on a merit basis and more would be recruited soon.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2014