SUKKUR: Pakistan Peoples Party central leader Rehman Malik has shrugged off objections to conspicuous absence of former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in his wife’s death anniversary and said Mr Zardari is too ill to return to Pakistan at the moment.

“He has developed gap in the backbone. He is also suffering from high level of sugar and getting physiotherapy on a daily basis,” he said.

Talking to journalists here at the airport on Sunday before leaving for Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, he said the PPP stood by army and supported action taken against terrorism by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif.

He said the party’s legal team was the federation’s intervention with regard to Rangers powers and it would respond to it.

He advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resolve the imbroglio with sincerity and listen to Sindh’s complaints patiently.

Reacting to former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s announcement of forming a political party, the former federal interior said that Iftikhar Chaudhry had launched into politics the day when he punished Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and sent him home.

He said the case against Asif Zardari was processed on the basis of photo stat copies of documents and he remained imprisoned for 16 years. Being CJP, Iftikhar Chaudhry was required to process speedily the case of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and hear it on a daily basis but it was not done and the case was lingering till this day, he added.

He appealed to the present Chief Justice of Pakistan to interfere in the case and hold its hearing on a daily basis to unearth the conspiracy that led to the assassination.

He said that Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi but nobody knew if he had talked with him on Kashmir and Samjhota Express issues or not.

‘Governor’s Rule counterproductive’

Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah has said that if the center imposes Governor’s Rule on Sindh it will have to face its consequences as well.

Talking to journalists here on Sunday, Mr Shah that there were murmurs about imposition of the Governor’s Rule but no issue could be resolved forcibly.

Use of force would only worsen the situation and there were many examples round the world like Afghanistan and Libya where use of force proved counterproductive, he said.

In a democratic system, he said, all problems could be resolved through dialogue. Sindh’s issues could also be resolved through talks but the federation’s attitude towards the province was unacceptable. The federation had four units, if any unit got weakened it would render the whole state weak, he said.

He said that Z. A. Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto were martyred because they took the field for people and sacrificed their lives for democracy in the country.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2015