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| October 11, 2006 | Wednesday | Ramazan 17, 1427 |
ISI offered help in 2002 polls: Ghinwa
LAHORE, Oct 10: Ghinwa Bhutto says her differences with Benazir Bhutto are political in nature and can’t be resolved unless there is a change in the mindset on either side.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, the PPP-SB chairperson said as there was no possibility of either side changing mindset there would be no change in the `status quo’.
The former prime minister, she alleged, thought that the US was the source of political power, while the PPP (SB) relied on people’s power. Simply put, she said, one side supported ‘imperialism’ while the other strongly opposed it.
Ghinwa said she would prefer to scarify her life rather than compromising on her political principles.
Answering a question, the widow of the late Murtaza Bhutto claimed that the ISI had approached her ahead of 2002 general elections to suggest that she should contest either from the platform of the National Alliance, of which former president Farooq Leghari and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi were the top leaders, or that of the Sindh Democratic Alliance. She was told that after winning the election she would become a minister and thus be in a better position to have her husband’s murder case decided.
She said that she had rejected the offer out of hand, saying instead of making such a deal she would like to have the system reformed so that everybody, including herself, got justice.
She said she was disqualified for the general elections because she had declined an offer from the powers that be.
She said though her party chose a very difficult road, it was right in its judgment, and she would adhere to it.
Ghinwa said those who had brought the offer could not be trusted as they were capable of cheating anybody. The agencies, she said, wanted to use the PPP-SB to achieve their own goals and she refused to become an instrument to be used for anybody else’s designs.
Rejecting the perception that her party had failed to take off even after a decade of its launch, Ghinwa said it enjoyed popular support which would be shown at an appropriate time.
She said the US was trying to destroy the `political culture’ of Pakistan and the overthrow of ZA Bhutto and induction of Gen Zia, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and other rulers was part of the same agenda.
She alleged that the MMA, the ruling PML and the PPP-Patriots had been created by the agencies. She alleged that both the exiled former prime ministers came into power after accepting the terms dictated by the `actual rulers of the country’.
The PPP-SB, she said, was trying to save the political culture and it was because of its struggle on this front that its presence in the field was not being felt as strongly. She claimed as a result of her party’s efforts, people’s level of political awakening had risen.
Replying to a question, Ghinwa Bhutto said: “People are our allies and rulers rivals”.
Answering a question, she said her daughter Fatima would herself decide whether she would join politics or not.
PPP-SB leader Inayat Husain and Javed Iqbal Muazzam were also present.
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