KARACHI: PPP Chairman Bila­wal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said the upcoming Sindh government led by the PPP would constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe all violent incidents during the election campaign, promising exemplary punishments for those involved.

The PPP chief made these remarks after a visit to the residence of a party supporter whose 12-year-old nephew was killed in an apparent clash between two parties in New Karachi in the lead-up to elections. The PPP chairman met the victim’s family, offered condolences to his mother, Rasoola Bibi, and offered Fateha.

“By giving exemplary punishment to those involved in the violence as per the law, we will bring justice to our workers as well as all other political workers, while also ensuring that such incidents do not happen again,” he told reporters.

According to the PPP leader, there was alleged pressure on the victim’s family to announce that they were not associated with the PPP. He said that instead of providing justice to the victim’s family, the law enforcement agencies registered FIRs. He said that his party would not forget the injustices meted out to it during the recent general elections and the killing of the PPP workers.

Insists political parties protesting rigging never won elections in Sindh

The PPP chairman said: “We will not tolerate religious, linguistic and sectarian terrorism, neither in the metropolis nor in this province. Those parties who want to promote terrorism are mistaken…we will not allow this,” he warned.

Rigging protests

Speaking about protests against alleged irregularities in elections, the PPP chairman said the opposition parties holding protests against alleged rigging had never won an election in Sindh.

The PPP chairman said the 2024 elections were not much different from the 2018 elections, recalling: “I raised my objections to the election in front of the whole of Pakistan after the (party’s) Central Executive Committee meeting.”

According to Forms-45, PPP candidates had won PS-124 and PS-125, but candidates from other parties had been declared successful in these constituencies, he claimed.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the PPP would take its case to relevant forums and if it did not get justice, then the party would chart its future course. He said that those who are protesting “unnecessarily” in the name of rigging in Sindh these days had not won a single election in the past.

PTI-SIC alliance

Responding to a question about the PTI, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that “now the Sunni Ittehad Council should tell the truth to its workers that it does not have the majority to form the government”.

He added that the PTI did not stop Shehbaz Sharif from becoming the prime minister. “If Shehbaz Sharif is going to become the prime minister, he will thank us and the PTI, [because] I think Khan sahib himself would have decided not to field a candidate against Shehbaz Sharif,” he said.

On the issue of former prime minister Imran Khan writing a letter to the IMF, the PPP chairman said that “writing a letter against Pakistan” to the lender would not accomplish anything. “However, after this letter, the real face of the person who loves his politics more than the national interest has been exposed,” the PPP chairman said.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2024