HYDERABAD, Jan 7: Federal Minister for Justice and Human Rights Ansar Burney on Monday expressed regret over publication of offensive advertisements in newspapers by Pakistan Muslim League, which he said could lead to divisions among people on ethnic lines.

The party had also set up the so-called ‘refugee camps’ in Lahore for the non-existent Punjabi victims of riots and violence in Sindh, which was engulfed in fire the rest of the country after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27, 2007, he said.

Mr Burney said at a meet the press programme at the press club that the government had taken notice of the advertisements and stressed that newspapers should not have published such ads in the first place.

He said that it was wrong to state that Sindhis had not suffered during riots because they had to bear the major brunt during the three-day violence. All the people living in Sindh were Sindhis and Pakistanis, he said.

He said that some people were adding fuel to the fire and they could go to any extent for remaining in and coming to power. The rioters were not political workers they were terrorists conspiring against Sindh and Sindhis, he stressed.

To a question about investigation of Benazir Bhutto’s murder Mr Burney said that personally, he was against involving foreign agencies in the investigation and supported judicial probe.

He avoided making any comment when journalists suggested that Justice Iftikhar Choudhry head the judicial probe and asked for some other names, which were readily put forward. He promised to make the suggestion to the president.—PPI

Mr Burney said he had appointed committees tasked with investigating into the registration of cases against innocent people and journalists and would submit the committees’ findings to President Musharraf, adds our bureau.

He condemned rumours, which he said were being spread by vested interests, about victimisation of people on ethnic basis and setting up of so-called refugee camps.

He said that he had visited Sindh and laid a floral wreath on the grave of Benazir Bhutto on his behalf and on behalf of President Musharraf but he had not come across even a single case in which any property had been destroyed on ethnic grounds.

Mr Burney said that he was deeply shocked to read in the newspapers about molestation of women during recent disturbances but (he believed) there was no truth whatsoever in such reports.

Terrorists believed in no ethnicity nor any religion they were just terrorists who looted and destroyed public and private property, he remarked.

He did not rule out foreign hand in the widespread incidents of loot, plunder, arson and vandalism and called upon all the political parties, politicians and people at large to help diffuse the volatile situation.

“Our war should be against terrorists, whoever they are and wherever they are,” Mr Burney said likening them to fire and earthquakes, which spared no one.

On the state of the country’s justice system, he said that he found a 100-year-old person languishing in jail and learnt that some inmates had been waiting for 30 years for a decision on their appeals.