HYDERABAD: Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani has demanded that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan should tender an apology to nation for cursing the parliament.

Mr Durrani said at a welcome camp of All Sindhi Pathan Youth at Hala Naka here on Saturday that PTI had no impact in Sindh because the party’s leaders abused the parliament and in so doing they abused the very voters whose votes created that institution. If the PTI leadership had failed to do something, it had no right to take out its frustration on others, he said.

He condemned the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud in a suspected encounter and said inquiry was being conducted and whoever was found involved in the crime would be awarded punishment.

He rejected the impression that PPP wanted to save Rao Anwar, the police officer accused of killing Naqeeb in a fake encounter, and said if the officer was guilty, court would punish him.

About Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, he said that when a case was filed against Shaikh for brandishing a Kalashnikov he claimed the weapon was a toy gun made of plastic. Such a person was not trustworthy as he made fiery remarks only to be alive in media, he said. He said that Pakistan Peoples Party supported Dr Tahirul Qadri’s movement for justice for Model Town carnage victims and demanded that legal action be taken against the persons responsible for the murder of 14 people. He said in answer to a question that PPP had formed electoral alliances in past but at present it did not feel the need for any alliance.

Mr Durrani, who is also head of All Sindhi Pathan Youth, said: “We have gathered here to promote unity of Sindhi Pathans and address basic issues of the Pathan community which has been living in Sindh for two centuries. They are permanently settled here and they call themselves Sindhis,” he said.

He said the Ittehad was aimed at addressing the community’s problems and forging unity in its ranks but it had inadvertently ‘disturbed’ many people.

Their concerns would soon be removed, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2018