HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party-Parliamentarians information secretary Maula Bux Chandio has dismissed comparisons between slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and Maryam Nawaz and said it is impossible for the “pampered child of House of Sharif” to reach the stature of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter.

Maryam Nawaz went to record her statement before joint investigation team probing alleged financial irregularities revealed by Panama Papers amid tight security while Benazir Bhutto had to shunt between courts to attend hearings all alone without any security though she was a former premier, said Mr Chandio while speaking to media persons during a rally taken out by PPP to express solidarity with Rohingya Muslims here on Monday.

“You (Maryam) have the comfort and ease of doing politics under the government of your own father and uncle. You should keep yourself busy with elections and avoid speaking about BB who is matchless. There is no comparison between you and BB. If you dare talk about her, we will be forced to react,” he said.

He said that Sharifs were reminded of injustice with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto only after they had to face a verdict against them. Mr Sharif had to admit to himself after reaching Saudi Arabia that he could never become Zulfikar Ali Bhutto though he too tried to imitate Bhutto. Mr Sharif was well aware of the fact that he could not make the sacrifices rendered by Bhuttos, he said.

It was former premier Mr Sharif who implicated PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in ‘fake’ cases and managed to send him behind bars for years. The crop sown by Mr Sharif had not yet been harvested completely, he said.

Mr Chandio said the “coward leaders” who had ruled the country for decades under the patronage and support of institutions had miserably failed to raise the prestige of their own homeland. Conspiracies against national security were being hatched along international borders but the government was not ready to take bold initiatives, he said.

About Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, he said that it was relatively easy to become a prime minister but very difficult to be a leader of people.

He said that Imran Khan had set his sights on Sindh and he claimed to win over the province by holding public meetings but he would get nothing out of this exercise.

He condemned atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims and appealed to all heads of Muslim countries, international human rights organisations and “coward rulers” of Pakistan to play their role in stopping unabated massacre of Muslims in Myanmar.

It was sad that the so-called icon of democracy and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, too, was showing narrow-mindedness and antipathy towards persecuted Muslim minority of her country, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2017