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| 11 December 2004 | Saturday | 28 Shawwal 1425 |
Asif asks Arbab to step down
KARACHI, Dec 10: PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari on Friday demanded resignation of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim for expressing his inability to ensure his (Mr Zardari's) security
, and claimed: "The chief minister's statements smacked of a conspiracy being hatched to eliminate me.''
Addressing a news conference at Bilawal House here on Friday after concluding a whirlwind tour of Sindh, Mr Zardari said: "If anything wrong happens to me, he will be responsible."
"The chief minister has confessed to failure of his government in the maintenance of law and order by asking me to restrict my movements. But I want to make it clear that I consider it a conspiracy to harm me.
If, God forbid, any such incident does take place, then the first name in the FIR will be of the chief minister of the province in which the conspiracy is executed. The party and the family will be at liberty to add more names," said Mr Zardari.''
He pointed out that Murtaza Bhutto was killed under a conspiracy that had been hatched by similar elements. In reply to a question, Mr Zardari said that if voted in power, the PPP would reopen Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's murder case and order reinvestigation into Murtaza Bhutto murder case.
He said that the PPP would seek public apology from those responsible for sending Z. A. Bhutto to the gallows. Mr Zardari said he was not afraid of threats because the PPP had given the supreme sacrifice for the sake of Pakistan.
Pointing out that more and more people were supporting the PPP, he said he had seen a ray of hope in their eyes while the people accorded a tumultuous welcome to him during his tour of the interior Sindh.
"They have pinned their hope in the PPP and Benazir Bhutto who had promised them roti, kapra, aur makan because the present dispensation had given them unemployment, price-hike and more suicide incidents," he said, and pointed out that when the PPP government was asked to pack up, atta was selling at Rs6 per kg as against today's Rs17.
He said that over the years, Saradri and feudal system was propped up to oppose democratic forces. Mr Zardari vowed that the PPP would compel the rulers to hold general election next year, and said that the party did not take dictation from anybody.
Commenting on the US statement on holding of general elections in 2007, he said that the statement by implication recognised that previous elections were not free, fair and transparent.
Replying to a question, he said that the PPP had termed the elections 'rigged and manipulated'. Even the ARD had also demanded free, fair and transparent elections, he added.
He told a questioner that the PPP always had street power which would now be converted into a vote power. Had the generals not propped up the IJI and manipulated election results in 1988, the PPP would have implemented many of its people-friendly policies.
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