KARACHI: Taking strong exception to certain allegations levelled by former home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza that targeted killers were being released, the home minister, Manzoor Wasan, made it clear on Wednesday that his predecessor was holding press conferences and expressing his views in his personal capacity and the Pakistan People’s Party did not own them.
“You [Dr Mirza] were holding the fort for three years and if you have so much love for Sindh and Pakistan you could have come into action and say so. Why all of a sudden you have taken the decision to speak about it?” said Mr Wasan, without taking Dr Mirza’s name.
In an obvious reference to Dr Mirza’s resignation from the party office, the home minister told a crowded press conference that “many had joined the party and had left”.
He said that the PPP was the only party in which the people commanded respect on the basis of dedication and sacrifices without any discrimination or prejudice of Punjabi, Baloch, Pakhtun, Urdu or Sindhi speaking and that was why the PPP was known as the chain of the four provinces.
In reply to a question as to what disciplinary action the party took against a person who was giving it a bad name, Mr Wasan said that the former home minister had already been removed from the office of the PPP Sindh chapter’s senior vice president, while his removal from the Sindh cabinet was also notified the other day.
As far as his (Dr Mirza’s) party membership was concerned, a decision in this regard was the prerogative of the central executive committee of the PPP, he added.
He said that the PPP would continue to pursue the policy of reconciliation, whose foundation was actually laid by former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he had formed the government with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, the National Awami Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Qayyum).
He said that this policy was also endorsed by Nusrat Bhutto when the Movement for Restoration of Democracy was formed in 1981 by taking along all political forces. Later, the same policy was strengthened by Benazir Bhutto when she formed a coalition government in 1988 with the MQM and then made the Grand Democratic Alliance. She had also formed the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy in 2001 with all political forces by forgetting all political differences to bring stability to the country and restore democracy, he said.
Mr Wasan said that Ms Bhutto did not approve Al-Zulfikar and opposed it tooth and nail as she believed in a democratic struggle and had always opposed the politics of violence. “We don’t believe in the politics of guns but in democracy for which towering personalities like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto sacrificed their lives to see a strong and democratic Pakistan and we are also prepared to give every sacrifice.”
He said that he had been the deputy secretary general of the PPP’s Sindh chapter and used to visit Karachi and accompany Ms Bhutto during her public meetings elsewhere in interior of Sindh and it was in his knowledge what was going on in the streets of Lyari.
He said that it was his humble plea that the country had to be saved and peace had to be restored to Karachi.
He said that the co-chairman of the PPP, President Asif Ali Zardari, was also following the reconciliation policy of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. It was due to this policy that the PPP had not only managed to bring its prime minister, speaker of the national assembly, the chairman of the senate and the president of the country, but also succeeded in forming coalition governments in the four provinces despite lacking a simple majority in parliament, he added.
He said it was because of the reconciliation policy and coalition with democratic forces that the PPP-led government had crossed 42 months, while its previous two governments were dissolved within 18 months and 37 months, respectively.
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