GUJRAT: PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira questions how the PPP can accept the verdict in Benazir Bhutto’s murder case when the facilitators who had been nabbed after hectic investigation and efforts of the law-enforcement agencies have been acquitted.

The PPP was weighing options including that of becoming a party and filing an appeal in the case so that the accomplices of terrorists could be punished, the former federal minister told Dawn at Islamic Center here after offering condolence with Jamaat-i-Islami’s Gujrat Emir Dr Tariq Saleem on the death of his grandson on Friday.

Mr Kaira said Benazir murder case was still inconclusive as the government had let retired Gen Pervez Musharraf leave the country despite court’s ruling. The government could stop Musharraf from leaving the country in other cases, he said. He said now he should be brought back through issuance of red warrants.

Mr Kaira whose relative Tauqeer Akram Kaira was among those killed in December 2007 negated an impression that the PPP government did nothing to penalise the assassins of Benazir Bhutto. He said the PPP’s plea to reopen the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case was pending with court and the party had been awaiting its conclusion.

Asked about any possibility of his party’s cooperation with the ruling PML-N, he said Asif Ali Zardari had already said the PPP could negotiate or cooperate with the ruling party within parliament particularly on the matter of legislation.

He said it was a wrong impression that the the acquittal of Asif Zardari in NAB case and the permission granted to former PPP minister Dr Asim to go abroad had been a result of a deal with the establishment. Both decisions had been made by courts and the PPP had always honoured verdicts, he said.

He said calling the army for the rescue operation after rain wreaked havoc in Karachi was a constitutional step the Sindh government had taken. The administration in American state of Texas had called in army for the rescue services in the flood-affected areas.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2017