Peshawar trip: Nawaz urges ‘proper probe’ into Benazir case

PML-N chief hits out at PPP govt for its ‘failure’, speaks on Memogate scandal.

PESHAWAR:

In a meeting with journalists in Peshawar on Tuesday, Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif continued a steady diatribe against the government’s failures – but also touched on the issue of his own party’s estranged members.

On the occasion of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Nawaz said that the case should have been ‘properly investigated’ by now, but the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had failed to deliver in this regard.

Nawaz also spoke on the ongoing Memogate case, saying that a decision was expected in the coming days.  He said the government was not complying with the court’s decision, and that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had continuously been changing his statements on the case.

Nawaz said that keeping the government’s track record in mind, it appeared that it would not follow the court’s decision in the memo case. “If the PPP government had gone by the court’s decisions, then at this moment, I would have been its biggest supporter,” Nawaz added.

Disgruntled members

Later, however, Nawaz paid attention a little closer to home and visited the house of disgruntled PML-N leader Sir Anjam Khan in Hayatabad, where other party leaders including Abdul Subhan Khan and Haji Afzal were also present.

Significantly, Nawaz told those present that for those who were leaving or had left the party, ‘no decision’ had yet been made as to whether they would be allowed to ‘return to the party’s fold’.

Nawaz who was on an overnight stay in Peshawar, was also to attend the wedding ceremony of Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) former chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s grandson– but more importantly, he will be present at the provincial party organisation elections to be held for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, scheduled for Wednesday (today).

In the aftermath of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s increasing popularity  a shaken PML-N  has decided to reorganise its ranks and is launching provincial party elections in all the provinces over the  coming weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2011.