SUKKUR: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday said that he regards [former president retired General Pervez] Musharraf as the killer of her mother Benazir Bhutto and [Jamhoori Watan Party leader] Akbar Bugti. He said the former president was also responsible for the Karachi carnage and killing of countless people.

Speaking to media personnel after inaugurating a hall, named after his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, at the Sukkur Press Club, Bhutto-Zardari described General Musharraf a coward person. “If he is really a brave soldier as he portrays himself to be, he should come here and face the cases registered against him,” he argued.

“He screams in pain uncontrollably while being in Pakistan but recovers from all ailments as soon as he leaves the country,” the PPP chairman wondered.

He claimed that the then president know that his mother [Benazir Bhutto] was going to be attacked [in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007] but he did not do anything to protect her by providing her adequate security.

“We all are here in Pakistan despite threats to our life because we are not coward but he who is coward has escaped and not ready to face a trial,” Bhutto-Zardari remarked.

He, however, expressed his confidence that the justice would be restored to him and his family in the assassination case. Otherwise, he added, “other options are open”.

“Here we can only appeal to the judiciary for the dispensation of justice in the assassination case as well as those of other martyrs. We don’t want to move a court of some other country, like the United Kingdom, as this would undermine the honour and prestige of my own country,” he said.

In reply to a question, the PPP chairman said whenever a public meeting of [Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief] Imran Khan in Sindh fizzled out, he would resort to addressing chairs vent his anger on the Sindh government. Responding to another question about Nawaz Sharif’s terming Imran ladla (blue eyed boy) of judges, he said both Sharif and Imran were blue eyed boys.

When asked about a shift in PPP’s policy towards Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Bhutto-Zardari said: “We are not with Imran Khan or [PAT chief] Tahirul Qadri ... we are with the heirs of those martyred in the Model Town tragedy”.

The PPP chairman expressed his confidence that the next general election would held on time, adding that the present political dispensation would definitely complete its tenure.

“Rumours did hit the PPP tenure in its last year but the party completed its constitutional term,” argued.

About nomination of Shahbaz Sharif as the PML-N candidate for the slot of prime minister in the next election, Bhutto-Zardari said: “My rival will be Nawaz Sharif and there can be no reconciliation with him”.

At the inauguration ceremony, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was given the lifetime membership of the Sukkur Press Club.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Senator Islamuddin Shaikh, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, MNA Noman Islam Shaikh, MPA Awais Shah, former Senate chairman Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Sukkur Mayor Arsalan Islam Shaikh and others PPP leaders were present.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2017