LARKANA: Senior Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Food Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has called for burying the practice of making decisions on the ‘Larkana and Lahore basis’.

Mr Khuhro, who is also provincial chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh chapter, was talking to media after presiding over a meeting with the elected chairmen and vice chairmen of union committees and the mayor of Larkana at his residence on Wednesday. He claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had lost interest in Sindh while the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had no political future here.

Criticising PTI chief Imran Khan, the minister said Imran wanted to see change similar to Article 58(2)B and was waiting for the umpire’s finger, but he said now such options had been blocked constitutionally. No one could now dare come in power from the back door, he said.

Pointing towards the PTI admitting “lotas” in the party, he said the people could witness the kind of change he [Imran Khan] had brought in. The man who had the history of supporting Musharraf’s referendum was banking on turncoats, he said sarcastically.

He said that those stood by dictators were manoeuvring to see change through back doors. He said the ‘change’ would only come through Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari when people would propel him to power in the general elections.

He was confident that the PPP would give tough time to the PML-N in Sindh and the PTI in Punjab in the forthcoming general elections. He said the nation wanted to know the secret behind Imran Khan’s close alliance with Jahangir Tareen.

Perhaps, Mr Khuhro alleged, the prime minister was “punishing” Sindh for not voting for him in the previous elections. He said the Sharif brothers, whenever trapped in a quagmire, looked to the PPP for support. But after coming out of the crises, they betrayed it, he added.

He said Nawaz Sharif, who could not face mosquitoes in jail, had fled to Saudi Arabia after striking a deal with Gen Pervez Musharraf for not doing politics for 10 years. Despite that the Sharifs returned and joined politics due to Benazir Bhutto, he claimed.

He said the PML-N, which had a history of attacking courts, was out to harass and influence the joint investigation team (JIT) because they (Sharif brothers) knew that they had been trapped in connection with the Panama Papers case.

He believed that the nation was waiting for justice in the Panama Papers case, adding that JIT itself had failed to trace money trail in it. He said there should not be difference in making decisions for the prime minister of PPP and that of the PML-N.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2017