PPP criticizes MMA leadership: Opposition leader's nomination
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, May 17: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has criticized the nomination of Maulana Fazlur Rehman as opposition leader, saying that it has exposed the political expediency of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) that is nothing more than a B-team of the ruling elites.
Briefing newsmen after a day-long meeting of the PPP provincial council, district presidents and provincial cabinet at the residence of MPA Syed Zahir Shah here on Sunday, provincial PPP chief Rahimdad Khan said the incumbent government and the MMA were two sides of the same coin. The alliance was formed to bulldoze the genuine political forces in the country, he alleged.
Mr Khan said that after the official nomination of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the MMA government had become a silent spectator to the wheat crisis, over which various ministers had launched a verbal battle with the Punjab government. He said it was a drama to divert attention of the masses from their problems like price-hike, lawlessness, unemployment and poverty.
He said the PPP believed in an uninterrupted political process in the country, because it was necessary for the strengthening of a democratic system. The King's party and other ruling groups were trying to de-politicise society by installing political non-entities in the government as well in parliament, he added.
Mr Khan criticized the deportation of Pakistan Muslim League-N president Shahbaz Sharif and termed it an unconstitutional, immoral and illegal move on the part of the government. "Every citizen enjoys an undeniable right of living in his/her country," he said.
Referring to the poll violence in Karachi, Mr Khan said that it was a Muttahida Qaumi Movement's pre-planned move to rig the elections. The MQM was enjoying full backing of the government in its violent campaign against the democracy-loving forces in Sindh, he added.
Mr Khan denied any differences in the PPP and said some federal council members and central executive committee members also attended the PPP meeting and gave their suggestions. The PPP would be reorganized across the province with the help of party's old cadres, he added.
He also denied that the party MPAs had ditched a party nominee in the Senate elections, saying that all PPP lawmakers were loyal to the party. In reply to a question, he said the party would launch a drive for the early release of Asif Ali Zardari. The meeting had also adopted a resolution for his (Asif) unconditional release, he added.
The PPP president said the PPP lawmakers in next assembly session would present a resolution demanding early implementation of the 7th Wage Board award in the newspaper industry. Former interior minister Naseerullah Khan Babar, Abdul Samad Khan, Barrister Masood Kausar, Masood Sharif and others attended the meeting.
