PPP decides to step up street protests

ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) decided on Sunday to step up its street protests against the government for allowing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is facing several court cases, to travel abroad.

PPP’s senior leadership met in Karachi to finalise a plan of action. The meeting agreed to stage district-wise protests against the government. It was also decided that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who chaired Sunday’s meeting, would address public gatherings in Umerkot on March 24, in Rahimyar Khan on March 26, and in Garhi Khuda Bux on April 4.

According to sources, Bilawal would adopt a critical stance against the government in his speeches in addition to countering criticisms that the PPP had done nothing against Musharraf when it was in power.

Bilawal asked party leaders to start preparations for the 2018 general elections.

“Dictatorial forces will try to weaken democracy but the PPP and other true democratic and progressive political parties will jointly foil such designs with the support of the masses,” he said, adding that his party would work to strengthen the democratic system.

Later, Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro told the media that the party would reach out to other political parties to muster their support to pressurise the government over Musharraf.

The meeting was attended by Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah, Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, Murad Ali Shah, Jam Mehtab Daher and Nasir Shah, Adviser to CM Maula Bux Chandio and others.

In Islamabad, PPP supporters staged a demonstration outside the National Press Club. Addressing a demonstration, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar asked whether the former military ruler’s departure was a result of pressure from ‘undisclosed quarters’ or part of some deal as claimed by Musharraf’s aide Ahmad Raza Kasuri.



“Until we know the truth behind the mystery, we will not be able to stop dictators from subverting the Constitution,” he said, while comparing the mystery with Osama bin Laden’s discovery in Abbottabad in 2011.

He added that the underlying message of the episode was that there were two sets of laws in the country, one for the common man and the other for the strong and powerful. “The stark message is that a dictator, even while facing treason charges in a competent court of law, can get away unpunished and untried,” he said.

Senator hinted that the party would take up the matter in the Senate and National Assembly as he called for ‘a candid debate’ on the matter in parliament. “Musharraf has mocked not only the government but also parliament and all political forces.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st,  2016.