GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH: The Peoples Party will give its assent to any law on military courts only after getting an assurance that it would not be misused against politicians and other civilians, former president Asif Zardari said on Saturday.

Speaking at a gathering in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on the seventh death anniversary of Benazir, he warned against turning the proposed courts into an instrument to hound politicians. “The courts should not be used to put Asif Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif behind bars,” Mr Zardari said.

Without naming retired General Pervez Musharraf, he said had he carried out an operation after the Oct 2007 attack on Ms Bhutto’s caravan in Karachi, there would have been no carnage of schoolchildren in Peshawar.

He was very critical of Pervez Musharraf’s political activities, saying that if “anyone is behind him”, he should come out in the open.

Ex-president criticises Pervez Musharraf’s utterances

“If the army wants him (Musharraf) to do politics, it should make it clear.”

Mr Zardari recalled that in 1991 Benazir Bhutto advocated separation of the resistance in Kashmir from the Afghan war, but “unfortunately no one paid heed to her”.

Mr Zardari said his party wanted to strengthen democracy. “We want to consolidate democracy so that our future generations could live peacefully,” he said.

Alluding to reported differences between him and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he accused his opponents of floating “baseless stories”.

“But they should understand that PPP is used to such tactics,” the former president said. Turning to Makhdoom Amin Fahim, he said he (Makhdoom) had neither betrayed PPP in the past nor would he do so in future.

Mr Zardari said Benazir Bhutto had thought it “fit that I should lead the party”. “I want to be buried in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto and anyone who leads PPP will be buried here. Garhi Khuda Bakhsh symbolises our ideology and philosophy.” The former president said PPP would never forsake the poor and always struggle for their rights.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014