ISLAMABAD, May 22: Some senior members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League asked the government on Tuesday to take immediate steps to resolve the judicial crisis, conduct a judicial inquiry into the May 12 Karachi bloodbath and address a number of other issues which had the potential to damage the party’s popularity in the coming elections.
According to sources, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain reiterated government’s offer to the opposition to hold talks to work out a code of conduct for the next elections and to settle all other issues of national concern.
The two-day meeting of the PML Central Executive Committee concluded at the Prime Minister’s House on Tuesday.
Talking to newsmen, Prime Minister Aziz brushed aside reports that MQM’s Rabita Committee had decided to quit his cabinet and the Sindh government, saying he was unaware of any such development.
Answering a question, he said the party did not discuss the issue of president’s re-election, adding: “Everything will be in accordance with the Constitution.”
Chaudhry Shujaat, Mushahid Hussain Syed and Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Rahim were present at the press conference.
Arbab Rahim said that there was no proof that the MQM started firing in Karachi on May 12, adding that the video footage supporting his statement would soon be released. He said the MQM was “our coalition partner and we will not ditch it”.
The chief minister said that law and order in the province was restored within a couple of days as against the past when such incidents were followed by unending riots.
In the party meeting, S.M. Zafar suggested framing of a national commission to help resolve political and judicial crises and called for their early settlement.Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who had resigned from the party’s basic membership on Monday, did not attended the CEC meeting on Tuesday, indicating that the issue stood unresolved.
Sindh Education Minister Hamida Khuhro severely criticised the MQM and said that Karachi’s law and order which had collapsed on May 12 was in jeopardy. She asked the government to take immediate measures. Otherwise, she warned, the PML would have to pay a heavy price in the elections.
She and federal minister Ghaus Bakhsh Maher and Maqbool Sheikh demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident so that real culprits could be exposed and the party was cleared of allegations levelled against it.Sources told Dawn that the senior vice-president of the party recalled that he attended a meeting of a former cabinet in which everyone described the situation as satisfactory, but the government was overthrown and assemblies dissolved the following day.
“Don’t take the potentially grave political situation so naively; take measures to defuse it as early as possible,” he added.
Arbab Rahim strongly defended the measures taken by the provincial government in Karachi on May 12 and alleged that chief justice’s insistence on visiting the Sindh High Court by road caused violence.
He supported the initiatives taken by the MQM on the day and said the party as a whole felt that the PML should support its coalition partner.
A proposal to send Pakhtun leaders of the party such as Salim Saifullah Khan, Amir Muqam and others to help defuse the situation created by the presence of ANP leaders in Karachi was opposed by other members.
Chaudhry Shujaat stressed the need for taking additional measures to organise the party on sound footings and proposed the setting up of a policy planning group under the chairmanship of the prime minister.
The proposal was adopted and it was decided that party’s senior-vice presidents and provincial party presidents would be members of the group which would hold fortnightly meetings to discuss and take decision on various issues.
