MITHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has called for implicating former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and former Karachi Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal in the investigation in Karsaz blasts case.

Khuhro, who was also a Senator, was speaking to media persons in Islamkot town on Thursday, accused both the former chief minister and the city’s mayor of being complicit in the violence that led to the death of around 180 PPP party workers and supporters, who had gathered in Karachi to welcome Benazir Bhutto upon her return from self-exile in 2007.

He pointed out that Arbab had claimed the party’s historic procession would end before midnight and streetlights were turned off along the route on the directives of the then city mayor.

Khuhro accused the then rulers, including Arbab, of pressuring police officers not to register an FIR on the tragic incident.

He recalled that the police station’s SHO had left his office when PPP teams sought to register the FIR and that the rulers had ordered the crime scene to be washed away.

Khuhro wants polls on time

Khuhro urged all democratic forces to put their heads together and ensure upcoming general elections are held as soon as possible and in a free, fair and transparent manner.

He demanded equal space for each political party to take part in the process of general elections. There should be elections not selections this time and mistakes made during general elections 2018 should not be repeated in the best interests of the country, he warned.

He advised former prime minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif not to strike any deal in lieu of his scheduled arrival in the country on Oct 21.

“If his arrival is the result of any deal with the powerful quarters he will also be called ‘selected’ like former premier and PTI chairman Imran Khan,” he said and warned that it would not augur well for democratic dispensation if things were manipulated to create congenial atmosphere for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo on his arrival.

He said that history would call both Mr Sharif ‘selected’ if Sharif was accorded undue favours in his desperate attempt to become prime minister for the fourth time.

The PPP had warned the officials of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) not to delay the process of general elections and subject it to Mr Sharif’s safe return. Such actions would only add to uncertainty and controversy in the country. “Every democratic force should be given opportunities to use its constitutional right to take part in electoral process,” he said.

Khuhro said that his party was ready to go into elections and criticised the ECP for delaying announce-ment of the election schedule. It was the ECP’s responsibility to announce the election date after the delimitation process had been completed by Nov 30, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2023