KARACHI, Nov 9: The PPP has demanded immediate reinstatement of sports celebrities Zaheer Abbas, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan in the PIA.

A meeting of the PPP Karachi coordination committee, chaired by Syed Qaim Ali Shah and attended by party leaders Aftab Shaban Mirani, N. D. Khan, Nawab Yusuf Talpur and Taj Haider here on Friday, criticized the decision of the national airlines to terminate the services of the sportsmen who distinguished themselves in the service of the nation.

The participants noted that the world of sports had seldom produced players of the calibre of Zaheer Abbas, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.

They maintained that the PIA, already on the course of retrenching experienced workers and technicians, had further damaged its own image by the “disgraceful act of sacking the sports celebrities”.

Meanwhile the party’s acting secretary general Raza Rabbani has said that the PPP is not supporting the military government, and what has emerged is a common approach between the PPP and the military rulers on the current situation.

“We have never entered into any back-door deal with any military regime, be at in the past or today,” he said in an interview in Karachi on Friday.

He said that historically the PPP had held a principled position on the three issues which made up the present crisis - terrorism, the Afghan policy and fundamentalism. “We have always struggled against all forms of terrorism, be it international, internal or state terrorism. The last variant is being faced by political cadres in Pakistan even today,” he observed.

Raza Rabbani said there was no doubt that eventually the will of the people would prevail and Pakistan would emerge as a strong, liberal, progressive, tolerant and democratic federation.

He said how long this struggle would last and what price the civil society would have to pay depended on a number of variables.

“The support of the establishment to extremists coupled with the support of the West to these elements (as and when it has suited the West) has caused great harm and suffering to liberal and democratic forces in Pakistan,” he said.

The PPP leader said that at the moment he did not think the military government had any strategy with which to confront the religious parties in the country.

“What is needed to counter fundamentalism is reason, alternative programmes, economic development and strengthening of democratic institutions,” he stressed.—PPI