SUKKUR: Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders on their way to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto to join their top leadership in observing the 9th death anniversary of slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto roundly criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for not responding to the party’s four demands and continuing with their ‘coercive’ actions against close aides of former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Speaking to the media at Sukkur airport on Tuesday, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, former interior minister Rehman Malik and Punjab PPP president Qamar Zaman Kaira strongly criticised Mr Sharif’s ‘stubborn’ attitude towards PPP, and said that their party chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, had put up the demands to help him come out of the persisting political and other crises. They said that the PPP wanted to save democracy from getting derailed.

They also deplored bad governance and federal authorities’ ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’ measures leading to the political, economic and energy crises, besides a chaotic situation in the country. They were of the opinion that the PML-N government had utterly failed to come up to the expectations of its electorate and other people.

Rehman Malik condemned the PML-N and its government for allowing former president retired General Pervez Musharraf to leave abroad. “Red warrants for his arrest should be issued through Interpol as he has to testify in the Benazir assassination case,” said Malik. The foreign ministry should adopt a short cut in getting the red warrants issued so that Gen Musharraf could be brought back soon, he added.

The former interior minister alleged that Gen Musharraf was involved in the assassination. “This high-profile case was investigated at the highest level during the PPP government and as many as 67 [pieces of] evidence were produced in court,” he said, adding that 10 suspects were killed during attempts to arrest them while five others were arrested. Another three were freed on bail, he said.

In reply to a question about the case having been unresolved nine years on, Malik attributed the delay to country’s judicial system.

He said that the hearing of the case should be held on a daily basis. “A lot of time has already gone waste and we are still waiting for justice,” he observed. He noted that the Supreme Court also did not take suo motu notice of [PPP founder chairman and prime minister of Pakistan] Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution after it was pronounced “extrajudicial”.

About PPP’s four demands, he said: “Had the prime minister been willing to avoid a movement against his government, he would have held talks on these demands but he did not. And now, the PPP is free to take a course, which will certainly be in the greater interest of the country and its citizens. He added that “We have no deal with anyone.” Malik evaded a question about Mr Sharif’s relation with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, by saying that he [Mr Sharif] could better tell you about his relations.

The senior PPP leader described Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s decision to abruptly call off the Nov 2 Islamabad closure as the result of “a mini-NRO”.

“But we are the real opposition,” he proclaimed.

Raja Pervez Ashraf told the media that the PML-N government had made tall claims about overcoming the energy crisis but the issue of loadshedding instead continued to aggravate during its current tenure. Moreover, he added, electricity became expensive and argued that it was Rs4 per unit during the PPP government when the oil price stood at $165 a barrel, but now when the oil price was much lower the electricity price was as high as Rs15 per unit.

About Mr Zardari’s return home from self-exile, Mr Ashraf said it had pumped energy into the PPP and given oxygen to the opposition. He noted that whenever the PML-N faced a crisis, it looked to the PPP for help and whenever the PPP landed in some trouble, the government asked it to go to courts. “The PML-N also begged us to help prepare ToRs when it faced the Panamagate,” he said.

Qamar Zaman Kaira told the media that the PTI never succeeded in taking its movements to a logical end. But PPP would achieve the goal when it would launch a movement, he said. “Ours will not be an emotional one,” he added.

He observed that rumours of differences within the PPP leadership were deliberately being spread and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s lack of experience in politics was being talked about. “This will not shorten the stature of the PPP chairman,” he said.

STP’s demand

Sindh Tarraqi-passand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has said that investigations into the Benazir Bhutto assassination case should be started from Rehman Malik and Babar Awan, our staff correspondent in Hyderabad adds.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he claimed that if the probe was started from those two, the assailants would be arrested. He said the Zardari league had harmed Sindh to a great extent as Sindhi people were considered scapegoats.

He observed that Sindh’s roads, bazaars, agriculture and infrastructure were destroyed due to corruption in government departments.

He maintained that Sindh was being considered a booty and being looted by the rulers. He said Bengali, Indian and Afghan refugees besides people from other areas of Pakistan were being thrust on Sindh and those outsiders were controlling the resources of Sindh.

The STP chief said Sindh was facing lawlessness for the past 50 years which seemed to be unending. He said Wana and Waziristan were cleared of terrorists in the wake of a military operation, but Sindh faced such an operation much earlier; however peace was not established here so far.

He said the operation in Sindh had fallen prey to political expediencies. He observed that terrorists were allowed to become members of parliament. Today Sindh faced the threats of the MQM and PPP for which Sindhi people would have to unite, he said.

Published in Dawn December 28th, 2016