LAHORE: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the opposition PPP criticised each other on the former army chief Pervez Musharraf issue during proceedings of the Punjab Assembly session here on Tuesday.

Speaking on a point of during the proceedings that began with a delay of 1.15 hours, PPP parliamentary leader Hassan Murtaza criticized the government for not allowing his party to observe its slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary at the site of her martyrdom in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh.

He said the government was in fact attempting to save “the murderer” by disallowing the victims to go to the site of murder. He alleged that Gen Musharraf was the killer of Benazir Bhutto and Akbar Bugti as well as responsible for the May 12, 2007 carnage in Karachi.

Recalling that retired Supreme Court Justice Nasim Hassan Shah, one of the members of the apex court bench that handed down capital punishment to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, admitted later that it was a judicial murder executed under pressure.

He said if they remained silent on the issues, history won’t forgive them.

Saying that the (mis)treatment being meted out to the opposition and rivals (by the government) was unprecedented in the political history of the country, he cautioned the ruling party that it won’t take long to change circumstances.

Provincial Minister Chaudhry Zaheer defended Gen Musharraf, saying that “our commander-in-chief can never be a traitor and Gen Musharraf is a patriot”.

“We’ve been and are standing with Musharraf and won’t let anyone to demoralize the army men guarding our borders.”

He said the government would also go for the option of filing a review petition in the high-treason verdict against the former army chief.

Treasury member Jugnoo Mohsin led sloganeering in the house against the Narendra Modi government.

Clarifying that she was speaking against fascist government of India, she said that people were protesting against the fascist government and hastened to clarify she meant the Indian government from it. She urged the lawmakers to join their voice showing solidarity with Indian Muslim minority.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019