LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi says there is no doubt the present government has failed and miseries are being added to the lives of the masses every passing day.

Speaking at a meeting with the district presidents of central region on Tuesday, Mr Qureshi said party chief Imran Khan had taken principled stands on national issues. In the upcoming local body elections, he said, the PML-N would be defeated in Punjab in a big way.

Mr Qureshi listened to the presidents and discussed problems. In the meeting, PTI Lahore District President Abdul Aleem Khan briefed him on the recommendations regarding party constitution. He said party workers demanded that the party be strengthened to face kind of circumstances. PTI district presidents Nadim Nisar (Narowal), Rana Naeemur Rehman (Gujranwala), Nadeem Haroon (Kasur), Hafiz Abad Aman Ullah Sindhu, Kanwar Imran Saeed (Sheikhupura), Chaudhry Shahnawaz (Sialkot) and central region president Barrister Mansoor Sarwar were present.

Wattoo: PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo says law must take its own course indiscriminately against those responsible for loss of lives and damage to the public property.

He said on Tuesday the loss of life and property on Sunday and Monday in Lahore and elsewhere reflected the poor performance of the Punjab government.

“The government was totally clueless and looked devoid of the capability of taking timely decision to manage the volatile situation,” he said, adding the government also must ensure safety and security of the Christians and their places of worship.

He said the government used excessive force without provocation in the Model Town incident killing 14 people but during the last two days it behaved like a spectator rather than acting on its basic responsibility to save the life and property of the people. It miserably failed on both occasions, he added.

He said militants were the enemy of the Pakistani regardless of their creed, faith and ethnicity because they had been killing them indiscriminately.

“Terrorists killed more than 40,000 Pakistanis and majority of them were Muslims. We as a nation have to defeat them,” he said, and added the PPP wanted implementation of National Action Plan to curb terrorism in letter and spirit.

PIL: Pakistan Inter-faith League (PIL) chairman Sajid Ishaq on Tuesday condemned suicide attacks on two churches in Youhanaabad and demanded justice for the Christians, who were targeted during the Sunday mass.

Speaking at a news conference at Lahore Press Club, Mr Ishaq, who is also PTI central minorities president, said the Christians across Pakistan had no faith in the joint investigation team formed by the Punjab government to probe the bombings and subsequent lynching of two Muslims allegedly by Christian youths.

“Both incidents should be probed by a judicial commission headed by a senior high court judge and the report must be made public. The commission should also be mandated to fix responsibility and hand out punishments to those found guilty of negligence ‎in duties,” he said.

The PIL chairman said the violent reaction of Christians in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sargodha reflected frustration of the non-Muslim communities of Punjab over persistent indifferent attitude of the PML-N government and the Punjab police.

“Had the government and provincial police protected Christians in Gojra, Shantinagar, Joseph Colony and Kot Radha Kishan, the reaction of the otherwise peaceful Christian community would not have reached this point,” he said.

He stressed that the government should ensure security and justice to not just Christians but believers of other faiths as well.

PIL and PTI office bearers also demanded an impartial probe into the lynching of the two innocent Muslims and stressed that the incident should not be used for witch hunt of the already persecuted minority community.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

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