SUKKUR: Contrary to most analysts’ belief that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf will secure comfortable majority in Senate after upcoming polls for the upper house, Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah claims opposition parties will instead be able to clinch a few seats more than those of the ruling party.

Shah said in answer to media persons’ queries outside accountability court here on Monday that the ruling party’s dream to dominate the Senate would never come true.

He said that the federal government did not appear to be serious about initiating a national dialogue with all opposition parties. If the government had been genuinely sincere its spokesmen would not have used bad language and their tone would also have softened towards opposition but on the contrary, the rulers themselves were turning up political heat, he said.

He said that the country’s political situation would see no improvement until and unless the rulers diverted their attention (away from accountability and) towards peoples’ problems.

He said that the country’s political conditions required that chief justice of Pakistan take steps to speed up proceedings of foreign funding case against Imran Khan and announce its decision as soon as possible.

The fact that the case had been lingering on for past six years without any outcome created doubts that there might really be something wrong and the allegations of receiving funds from Israel and India might not be so false either, he said.

He said that opposition parties did not have to put in much effort to lure several thousands of people to Pakistan Democratic Movement’s gatherings as 50 per cent of people who had got fed up with inflation, unemployment and lawlessness were voluntarily participating in the public meetings.

He said that law and order conditions in the country had worsened under the incompetent government and Pakistan’s foes were taking advantage of the centre’s defective and ill-advised policies.

Shah denied reports of serious differences among leaders of PDM Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and said all the leaders were on the same page.

About the issue of resignations, he said that the most opportune time for resignations had not yet come. The rulers would, however, keep saying the opposition’s plans had failed and public meetings had flopped.

Earlier, Khursheed Shah was brought from NICVD hospital through an ambulance and produced in court to attend hearing in the case of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

The rest of 17 co-accused in the case, including Shah’s nephew, provincial minister Awais Qadir Shah, also appeared before judge Fareed Anwar Qazi.

The court recorded statement of representative of Federal Board of Revenue about Khursheed Shah’s assets and adjourned the hearing to Jan 15.

Khursheed Shah was arrested 15 months ago on charges of accumulating assets worth more than Rs1.23 billion. Barely a month into the case’s hearings Shah’s counsel convinced the court about his client’s heart disease and since then he had been admitted to NICVD Sukkur.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2021