LARKANA: Ghinwa Bhutto, chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto, said on Saturday that the cruel system which was responsible for the murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto later devoured his sister Benazir Bhutto.

The conspiracy to assassinate Murtaza Bhutto was set in motion after Benazir came to power, she alleged.

Speaking at a gathering in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto held to mark the 22nd death anniversary of Murtaza Bhutto, she said that her party would have to fight against this system of oppressors and usurpers.

She disclosed that Murtaza had advised his sister to better sit on opposition benches and avoid assuming the office of the prime minister in the system which had branded their father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as accused and declared his sons Murtaza and Shahnawaz as terrorists. Prior to the murder, Murtaza was called to Prime Minister House for a patch-up where he went against the advice of his party, she said.

She said that Asif Ali Zardari was also present there but the brother and sister could not arrive at any agreement. Benazir had demanded certain things which were part of family heirlooms, she said. She described in detail the situation that led up to the murder of Murtaza Bhutto and said the recent murder of party leader Asad Umrani was also a message that the war was on. And she wanted to tell them “we are ready for it”, she said.

Aijaz Mangi, Ali Ahmed Palipoto, Inayat Umrani, Ms Feroza Lashari and other party leaders criticised rulers for ignoring the strong voice of dissent on construction of dams and awarding citizenship to aliens.

Inayat Umrani said that his brother Asad was killed in a targeted action. “We are not afraid of such tactics and fear will not weaken our resolve,” he said, adding he would soon disclose facts about the ‘staged encounter’ at a press conference.

The gathering passed a dozen resolutions, demanding punishment to all the characters involved in the murder of Murtaza Bhutto and other popular public heroes. A resolution condemned enforced disappearance of bloggers, journalists and nationalist and political workers and called for producing them in courts to face charges.

The meeting slammed what it saw as extrajudicial murders of Asad Umrani, Mashal Khan, Naqeebullah and others and demanded judicial probe. All elements involved in the killings should be dealt with in accordance with law, it said.

The gathering condemned the suspected murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and demanded it be probed by an international commission and the killers be awarded exemplary punishment.

It called for constituting a committee composed of scientists, historians, intellectuals, social scientists and economists to introduce educational reforms with particular emphasis on academic curriculum in line with modern times.

It slammed Indian atrocities in Kashmir and said the simmering Kashmir dispute should be resolved in accordance with wishes of Kashmiris and criticised Imran Khan’s government for its flawed economic strategy, bowing before the IMF for seeking loans.

It flayed the biased tax policies which favoured the rich and burdened the poor with evermore taxes and called for withdrawing recent increases in gas and electricity tariff.

The gathering urged the government to fix sugar cane rate at Rs250 per 40 kilogrammes and ensure mills started crushing from Nov 1. Instead of constructing controversial dams the water issue should be addressed by improving water management policies, said the meeting.

The gathering rejected what it termed judiciary’s interference in politics and political interference in judiciary and called for implementing laws for minorities’ protection.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2018