LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro on Monday said it was a big question as to who had called in the Rangers, who took over security of the Islamabad Accountability Court in the morning when ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was to appear before the judge.

Addressing a press conference at the local press club, Mr Khuhro, who holds the portfolio of Senior Minister for Food and Parliamentary Affairs, asked who had called in the Rangers to court if the judge concerned had not asked for it. Such an order should have come through the interior ministry but ironically even it was unaware about the deployment, he observed.

“Taking over security at the court by them [Rangers] on their own has raised the question about our institutions’ authority to exercise their powers within their domain independently,” said Mr Khuhro.

He said people must know that on whose order the paramilitary force moved to the court.

The occurrence of such incidents after [apex court’s recent verdict in] the Panama Papers case had weakened the federal government, the senior PPP leader claimed.

Commenting on moves to enable Nawaz Sharif to continue to head his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) through a constitutional amendment, Mr Khuhro said if this happened, it would cause ripples within that party and anyone could challenge the party’s move in court. He advised the PML-N leadership to think twice in this regard.

Mr Khuhro recalled that the PML-N had not lent support to PPP in its efforts to introduce certain amendments to the Constitution in the past, and claimed that it was Nawaz Sharif who had met [the then president] Farooq Leghari in the cover of night and also presented him a wristwatch. He [Sharif] had also met Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, he added.

He said PPP was yet to decide about more amendments to the Constitution, including those concerning Articles 62 and 63. In the same breath, he said that it was also the PML-N that had opposed amendment to the two articles when PPP tried to introduce the same in the past. “We will adopt a principled stand on constitutional matters,” he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Khuhro ruled out possibility of martial law in the country. Nor could the parliament be dissolved without prime minister’s advice. He said history was witness to the fact that PPP had never bowed to dictators and always stood by democracy.

Turning to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan’s moves, Mr Khuhro claimed that he [Khan] was losing his political credibility by demanding early general elections in the country. He advised the PTI chief to stop believing that [former military ruler] General Pervez Musharraf’s dream would come true. He remarked that Jahangir Tareen was a “general’s man” and Shah Mehmood Qureshi joined the PTI by deserting PPP.

Handing over a letter regarding the chief minister’s approval for a Rs5 million grant for the Larkana Press Club to its office-bearers, Mr Khuhro said PPP wanted to see the media growing stronger.

Larkana Mayor Mohammed Aslam Shaikh, Deputy Mayor Anwar Luhar, PPP leaders Aftab Nek Mohammed Bhutto, Nooruddin Abro and others accompanied Mr Khuhro at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2017