HYDERABAD: Adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information Maula Bux Chandio has criticised what he described as selective accountability and said action must be taken against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan for confessing to have treated Taliban at his hospital like Pakistan Peoples Party’s Dr Asim Hussain who has been in protracted custody on similar charges.

“If it is all about accountability then those who confessed to have treated Taliban at their hospital and those who urged Taliban to spare Punjab must face accountability under the National Action Plan,” he said, branding Mr Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as sahoolatkar (facilitator) and dawatkar (host), respectively.

Mr Chandio was speaking at an award distribution ceremony organised by Friends of Indus Forum at the press club and briefly talking to journalists after Eid-i-Miladun Nabi (Peace be upon him) programme at a private institute here on Saturday.

He said that he believed in accountability but it would bear no fruit if it was imposed only on Sindh and tried to dispel the impression that the PPP was against the Karachi operation.

The operation had not stopped, it would continue till the last terrorist existed but there was the need to address PPP reservations about the operation, he said.

He said the PPP had no tussle with the Centre but the Centre must adopt a positive attitude towards the provincial government. If there were some issues over Rangers’ powers they could be resolved through dialogue, he said.

“We never speak about revenge but the prime minister does as he has started revengeful politics,” he said.

Mr Chandio lambasted the prime minister’s aides none of whom was from Sindh or Balochistan. “Why only four to five men revolve around you [PM] each time and no other province gets representation in the delegation when you visit China,” he remarked.

He criticised the federal government’s state of denial over the presence of militant Islamic State group in the country and said that by doing so the Centre wanted to cover up its flaws. “You deny IS existence in Pakistan but then who are those who are arrested for being Daish affiliates,” he said.

He said that media should not treat the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz as a sacred cow and regretted the fact that democracy had always remained ‘frightened’ in the country.

About Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Ayaz Latif Palijo’s aversion to PPP, he said Mr Palijo was like a brother to him but if he spoke against the PPP then the party leaders had a right to give him a befitting answer.

About the state of PPP ties with MQM, he said that the PPP had no issue with the party and its doors remained open for all but at the moment PPP was not in any talks to induct MQM in the provincial government.

Asked when PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would return to Pakistan, he said Mr Zardari would come back after regaining health.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2016