HYDERABAD: Veteran Pakis­tan Peoples Party leader Makh­doom Amin Fahim has denied reports about his estrangement from party leadership and said “he does feel if his party needs reforms he will keep raising voice for it”.

“Our Sarwari Jamaat has been (in alliance) with the PPP for 40 years. It should, therefore, be accommodated accordingly and given a just share. If it is not done then we will feel it is being denied its right,” he said.

He was talking to journalists at the residence of a local leader of Sarwari Jamaat, Ibrahim Kaka, in Bagh Ali Mohammad Kaka village, Saeedabad, on Monday.

He said that a meeting [with retired Gen Pervez Musharraf] did not mean that he was leaving the party with which his family had been associated for 40 years. His Jamaat’s members always voted for PPP candidates across Sindh but when they approached PPP legislators to get their problems resolved they were given the cold shoulder, he complained.

He said that he would keep raising his voice for intra-party reforms. “Attention has been paid to some matters I had raised and I will keep an eye on how long the attention is given. If it stops we will raise our voice again,” he said.

Mr Fahim said that in principle the PPP did not believe in the establishment of military courts but the decision had been taken for a speci­fic period of time to counter terrorism as a result of consensus evo­lv­ed at the all parties conference which discussed the present situation.

He said that if some people had reservations over the military courts they should be approached in order to understand their position. These courts, he said, had been set up for two years and their performance could be discussed once they started working.

He said that the chief minister’s office was not that important and even if it was sought for Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman the problems had grown so complex that even the prime minister would find it difficult to appease everyone. Therefore, he said, it was better that one should be content with doing the work which did not affect one’s credibility.

He said that all jobless youths desired to have government jobs because they could keep drawing salaries without doing any work in government offices.

According to interviewers, he said, most degree holders who applied for jobs could hardly write a sentence or two correctly while the party chairman had announced the jobs would be provided on the basis of merit only.

About newspaper reports on the second part of Benazir Bhutto’s will, Mr Fahim said that he believed people were being made confused over it.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2015

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