LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed its concern at the US-Taliban peace agreement, doubting the success of an accord struck while excluding a major stakeholder like the Afghan government.

“Only an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process can ensure a lasting peace in Afghanistan and the region. And the PPP doubts that a process launched without taking onboard the Afghan citizens, women and parliamentarians who have been running the country and encountering terrorism,” party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said at a Meet the Press programme at the Lahore Press Club on Monday.

PPP leaders, including ex-prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Manzoor, Sindh minister Nasir Shah and Munawar Anjum, were also present.

He said: “If the negotiation process is based on peace that benefits ordinary Afghan men and women and ensures their economic and social rights, then it will definitely lead to a democratic solution to the decades-long dispute in the country. But, if the process starts with a tweet of the US president in a manner that Afghan government is kept out of the loop and a direct conversation between the US government and the Taliban begins, then I doubt its success.”

Accuses PTI-led set-up of accepting IMF’s anti-poor terms

Welcoming the deal despite his concerns, Mr Bilawal, however, hoped it would lead to an intra-Afghan dialogue for the benefit of Afghanistan and the region.

Responding to a query, he said he was concerned that if all stakeholders, including Pakistan, were aiming at ensuring win of Donald Trump in the next US elections then there would neither be peace and stability, nor it would be in the interest of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Rejecting the proposition that Prime Minister Imran Khan did what the PPP and PML-N failed to do during their respective terms for Afghan peace, he said Imran knew nothing in the past, nor he knew anything today or would in future. “Actually, goal posts have changed. In our tenure and during Mian Nawaz Sharif’s term as well, the Haqqanis were bad boys. But, now even New York Times is writing editorial on Siraj Haqqani.”

NAB: Lambasting the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Mr Bilawal said had its chairman any moral courage, he would have resigned after the European Union report that alleged the agency was being used for political motives against the opposition.

He said everybody knew that NAB and the economy [of Pakistan] could not go together and the business community had made Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa realise the fact.

Bilawal said the ‘black law’ [of NAB] must be abolished, paving the way for an institution where all and sundry could be held accountable and those found not guilty must not have to undergo the agony of a character assassination campaign.

He alleged that political revenge was at its peak in the country as the politicians who were speaking against the government were in jails.

PPP chairman said no one would believe that Nawaz Sharif was in jail or went to London (for treatment) because of corruption cases instituted against him.

Referring to political use of NAB, he regretted that even a late brother of Syed Khurshid Shah had been issued a notice by the bureau.

He said the PPP was waiting for justice in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari cases, hoping that the institutions supposed to give justice through their adjudication won’t become builders of dams, a reference to the dam fund set up by former chief justice Saqib Nisar.

The PPP chairman said the first attack by the PTI government was on the freedom of the press. “The government financially attacked the press by not paying newspapers and electronic media their outstanding dues. And on this excuse journalists from every institution were forced out.”

He regretted that censorship was on the rise in the country at a fast pace “not only for the political activists and the opposition, but also, the journalists, the cameraman, the producers, and the media owners, as well as for the children posting on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook.”

Answering a question about Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid’s statements, he said “talk of gutter must be left to gutter”. He wondered why Imran Khan was not asking the railway minister to resign who was responsible for a record number of train accidents in the history of the country. During his opposition days Imran Khan would demand resignation of the minister after every rail accident. He said the “gutter minister” would try to divert attention of the people through his statements from the rail accidents, regretting that even Chief Justice Gulzar Chaudhry could do nothing against him (Rashid).

Saying that railway’s minister was a selected one, he said the current tenure would be the last term of the selected and the masses could no more tolerate him. He said all would be amused to see the fate of ‘selected’ in the new government.

PPP chairman said the PTI government had no concrete plan to put before the IMF and thus it negotiated a “bad deal” with the IMF, accepting all the anti-poor terms of the world lending agency.

He said the NAB and the IMF were not the solution to Pakistan’s domestic problems.

Mr Bilawal said that public confidence should be restored to increase tax net like the provincial government did in Sindh by reducing sales tax rate and managing to collect more revenue than other federating units.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2020