KARACHI: PPP condemns ‘meddling’ in internal affairs
By Qasim A. Moini
KARACHI, March 11: The Pakistan People’s Party has strongly condemned the meddling of other political parties in its internal affairs and maintained that it is as united as ever in this “moment of joy.”
The condemnation and the claim about unimpaired unity came at a press conference held by the designated leader of the PPP’s parliamentary party in the Sindh Assembly, Pir Mazharul Haq, at the residence of Sindh chief minister-designate Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday.
The press conference followed the inaugural meeting of the PPP’s Sindh parliamentary party held earlier at the same location. Pir Mazhar said it was an “informal” meeting organized so that the elected members could get together as at the time the meeting was convened, the announcement declaring that the national and provincial assemblies’ sessions would be called on March 17 had not been made.
Pir Mazhar, who was accompanied by party leaders Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Nafees Siddiqui, Zulfiqar Mirza, Manzoor Wassan, Makhdoom Jameeluzzaman and Waqar Mehdi, said a resolution had been passed by members attending the meeting condemning the “meddling in our party’s internal affairs.”
“It is our house so we will worry about it. The party stands like a rock. We are united in times of sorrow as well as times of joy,” he added, without elaborating who was doing the meddling.
When members of the media, who were present in considerable numbers inside the packed living room, pressed the Pir to spell things out more clearly, he confirmed he was talking about the statement issued against Makhdoom Amin Fahim by Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Khwaja Mohammad Asif.
Khwaja Asif had said in a report published on Tuesday that the PML-N had “serious reservations” about Mr Fahim’s candidature for the prime ministerial slot due to his alleged frequent contacts with President Pervez Musharraf.
When questions were raised about the obvious internal rifts within the PPP which fuelled such reports, Pir Mazhar brushed these aside saying that “Amin Fahim has issued a statement in which he has said that he and Asif Zardari are united.”
He asked the media to “help us move forward” and not dwell on these contentious issues.
‘Unknown soldiers’
Pir Mazharul Haq also told the press conference that as per Benazir Bhutto’s wishes, 20 unknown victims of the October 18, 2007, Karsaz blasts would be taken to Garhi Khuda Baksh to be given a proper burial in the Bhutto family’s ancestral graveyard.
“Sixteen of the bodies are in bundles, while the remaining four aren’t in very good shape either. PPP leaders and workers will assemble at the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth at 8am on Wednesday and accompany the martyrs’ mortal remains in the shape of a caravan to Garhi Khuda Baksh. We will give these unknown soldiers, these janisaraan-i-Benazir a proper burial. On each of their graves we will write mein Bhutto hoon (I am Bhutto),” he said.
Pir Mazhar, who presided over the earlier meeting, did all the talking at the press conference as the other PPP bigwigs preferred to keep silent.
Among the other resolutions passed at the parliamentary party’s meeting, the party reposed full confidence in Asif Zardari’s leadership, while party members also backed the naming of Qaim Ali Shah as Sindh chief minister, Nisar Khuhro as assembly speaker and Pir Mazhar as leader of the parliamentary party.
Pir Mazhar said that no decision had yet been made on provincial cabinet posts, while he flayed the various inductions made in government departments by the caretaker government, adding that it was not part of its mandate. “The caretaker government’s mandate was simply to hold elections,” he added.
He asked the media to guide the new government to curb nepotism and maladministration.
He said fateha was offered for Benazir Bhutto and the Oct 18 victims by the parliamentarians attending the meeting.
