ISLAMABAD: Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are twins of a deepening curse and it is unthinkable that the Pakis­tan Peoples Party will support it in any form or manner, said party’s co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari while des­cribing his remarks about former superintendent of police Rao Anwar in a recent interview as misspoken.

Denouncing extrajudicial killings as “abhorrent, criminal and unacceptable”, he called for bringing to justice all those involved in it and regretted any offence to anyone, said Senator Farhat­ullah Babar, spokesperson for the former president, on Saturday.

A day earlier Mr Zardari in an interview had stated: “Rao Anwar is among those brave children who had participated in the operation against the MQM,” adding that he was the lone survivor among the 54 SHOs who took part in that operation.

The former president realised that his remarks made unwittingly in the flow of conversation might have cau­sed anguish, the spokesperson said.

Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings being twins of a deepening curse, it was unthinkable for the PPP to support it in any form or manner, the spokesperson said, adding that the party’s record in and out of the parliament was a testimony to it.

In the interview, the former president had said a police report against former SP Anwar was the result of a grouping within the police force. While responding to a question, he contested the police report that held the former police officer responsible for 444 extrajudicial killings in alleged encounters, arguing that if it was true then why there were not as many cases against Rao in courts.

Without mentioning the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case, Mr Zardari said the issue had been blown out of all proportion and sensationalised by the media, Twitter and other ‘social media brigade’. “That doesn’t necessarily mean it is a fact,” he added.

On Friday, the Supreme Court had issued a contempt notice to former Malir SP Rao Anwar for not appearing before it despite being granted protective bail in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

Naqeebullah Mehsud, a native of South Waziristan, was among the four men killed in an “encounter” in Karachi’s Shah Latif Town area on Jan 13. Amid an uproar against the killing on social media, Rao Anwar had insisted all the four killed were terrorists. However, his claim was rejected by a high-level probe committee of police. The developments took media by storm as people belonging to the Mehsud tribe took to the streets and staged a sit-in in Islamabad. They ended the sit-in after the prime minister assured them of the arrest of the culprit.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2018