Railway station blast: PTI cancels anniversary celebrations

Kasuri says Punjab and federal govts should resign over security failures.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has cancelled its 16th anniversary celebrations in the wake of Tuesday’s bomb blast at the City Railway Station that killed three and injured dozens of people.

The regional and provincial chapters of the party had planned various festivities to commemorate the day but felt it inappropriate to celebrate at this time, said PTI leader Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

Talking to reporters after visiting the injured in a hospital, Kasuri said that the explosion at a railway platform was further proof of the incompetence and complacency of the federal and Punjab government. He called on both governments to resign, saying they had failed on all fronts including security.

Referring to the PTI’s rally in Quetta last Friday, Kasuri said that the welcome given to the party’s “tsunami” showed that the people of Balochistan trusted the PTI.

He said that “vested interests” were behind the poor law and order situation in the province. The government had not addressed the problem in earnest, he said. The PTI would “deliver the goods” to the people of Balochistan and the Baloch people knew this, he said.

PTI Punjab President Ahsan Rashid also criticised the government over the City Railway Station blast. He said that government officials engaged the majority of the police in their own security, leaving infrastructure like the railway station vulnerable to attack. He said that security and the well-being of the public were not a priority for the Punjab government.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2012.