LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] founder Nawaz Sharif’s silence over the invitation for his party to become part of the joint opposition alliance shows that he has clandestinely struck a deal [like National Reconciliation Ordinance] with the government.

Speaking to Dawn on Monday he said his [Mr Sharif’s] reluctance to attend the proposed multiparty conference was enough to say that “he and Imran Khan have hammered out an NRO”.

Granting of bail to the ousted PM had set the alarm bells ringing the day it happened, he said, adding that as a result of the ‘NRO’, Mr Sharif was silent about becoming part of the joint opposition alliance.

“It looks strange that a man [Mr Sharif], who has been speaking against seeking any NRO has got it while the other one [Imran Khan], who has been refusing to give NRO to anyone, has struck such a deal,” Khuhro said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan stood exposed by taking such a step, he said, adding that with this, both persons proved themselves not credible. He pointed out that Mr Sharif was not even ready to call the PTI dispensation a failed government.

Earlier, speaking at a function held to distribute sewing machines and hand pumps among deserving people in his native village, Akil, Mr Khuhro said they [Pakistan Peoples Party leaders] were not afraid of the ‘jaundiced’ idea of imposing governor rule on Sindh.

“Those talking about it may go ahead if they could dare,” he challenged.

The senior PPP leader said that the National Accountability Bureau should conduct transparent and independent accountability. Its actions must not create the impression of victimisation. He said jails and cases were not new for the PPP and its leadership; they had experienced jails and survived traumas inside. He said PPP leaders were not afraid of ‘mosquito bites’ in jails like others.

Mr Khuhro said PM Khan’s ‘new Pakistan’ could be bracketed in a slogan Bees rupay ki roti, bees rupee ka naan, yeh hay Imran Khan ka naya Pakistan.

He said Mr Khan was “incapable” to run the country, therefore, his policies had multiplied peoples’ miseries. He observed that the PTI government was running the country in a “D-Chowk sit-in style”.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2018