ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the “targeted assassination” of a PPP candidate for the chairmanship of a union council and membership of the Okara district council in Depalpur tehsil along with two party workers.

“The coldblooded, targeted and premeditated murder of PPP candidate Malik Muhammad Aslam Channa and other party workers on the eve of by-elections and as local bodies polls draw nearer has raised legitimate questions about who is behind these murders,” he said in a statement on Saturday.

The three were killed when men on a motorcycle opened fire on them during a corner meeting in Mandi Ahmedabad on Friday night.

The party demands a transparent and thorough probe into the murders and arrest of the culprits at the earliest, the PPP leader said.

As the party president of the Punjab Assembly’s constituency, PP-188, Mr Channa had rendered great services to mobilise the party workers and expose corruption and wrongdoings of the government, he said.

“There are also suspicions that on the eve of by-elections and the forthcoming local bodies’ polls, the unnerved government wants to send a tough message to political opponents as it unsuccessfully did last year by killing over a dozen political workers in Model Town, Lahore. These suspicions must be addressed,” Mr Zardari said.

He said PPP would go as far as required to expose and punish the culprits in accordance with the law.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2015

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