ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday appealed to the estranged Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) not to incite people’s sentiments by giving religious colour to political issues.

Speaking at a news conference a day after MQM observed a ‘black day’ in Sindh against a controversial statement of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah, PPP’s Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan expressed surprise over the MQM’s move to use religion to achieve political objectives, saying: “We did not expect this from the MQM.”

Flanked by senior party leaders, Mr Ahsan also hit out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership for using “foul language” against the PPP leadership in its public meetings, warning the PPP workers might not remain silent all the time.

Mr Ahsan said the PPP had always believed that parties like MQM, ANP and the BNP were against all sorts of extremism and would never use religion in political matters. He said the use of religion by progressive parties was a matter of concern for all of them.

PTI warned against using ‘foul language’ against PPP leadership

“There seems to be no justification to incite people after a clarification by Khurshid Shah about his statement,” Aitzaz Ahsan said. He said MQM had the right to make a demand for the creation of new provinces. However, he added, the demand should only be made through constitutional means.

In reply to a question about the perception that the PPP had double standards on the issue of new provinces because of its different stance in Punjab and Sindh, Mr Ahsan said the party was against the division of Sindh as the provincial assembly had opposed it through resolutions. On the other hand, he said, the Punjab Assembly had passed resolutions for the creation of a province comprising southern areas.

Prominent among those present at the news conference were Raza Rabbani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nazar Gondal, Taj Haider, Saeed Ghani, Shazia Marri, Chaudhry Manzoor, Nargis Faiz Malik and Nazir Dhoki.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2014