NOWSHERA: Pakistan People’s Party leaders have demanded of the party’s co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, not to include Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the Sindh government until the issue of recovery of weapons and arrest of target killers from its headquarters was resolved.

“We demand of PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari not to include MQM in the provincial government until the party absolved itself from the charges of harboring criminals and dumping lethal weapons in the party’s headquarters,” said former federal minister and PPP leader Mian Muzzafar Shah, while talking to mediapersons after a party meeting here on Wednesday. PPP founding leader Mir Haider Lala, Mian Akmal Shah, Mian Sajjad Ali Shah Shebli and president PK-16 Saleem Koker were also in attendance.

“The statements and words used by MQM chief Altaf Hussain against the army are enough for their stand against the government institutions,” he said. “No doubt, we had also faced brutalities during Zia regime but it does not mean that we will hatch conspiracies or criticise the army,” he added.

The operation in Karachi has been started after consensus by all political parties, including MQM. Now it was the obligation of the political parties to extend moral support to the security forces and the Rangers,” said Mr Shah.

TEACHER BOOKED: The police on Wednesday registered a case against a schoolteacher for molesting two students of a primary school in Khairabad here.

Police sources said that the two students were found in critical condition in a classroom when their parents went there to inquire why their children had not returned from the school.

The sources said the students were shifted to the district headquarters hospital, Nowshera, where the doctors confirmed that the two boys had been molested. The police registered a case on the complaint of the parents against the schoolteacher, Ashraf, resident of Khairabad.

The police said the teacher had escaped the area and search was on to trace him.

Published in Dawn March 19th , 2015

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