Ex-foreign minister visits Sukkur

Shah Mehmood Qureshi says had Benazir Bhutto lived, the country would surely have changed a lot.

SUKKUR: Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi arrived in Sukkur on Sunday where he addressed people at the bypass, saying that had Benazir Bhutto lived the country would surely have changed a lot.

He said that the present conditions demanded a responsible and committed leadership and that the Pakistan Peoples Party had the ability to save the country.

He said he had no differences with President Asif Ali Zardari and would never have any. When asked about meeting the president, he said it would happen. On the Raymond Davis case, he said that a good bilateral relationship with the US was in Pakistan’s interest but it should be on the basis of mutual respect. Regarding the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parting ways with the PPP in the Punjab, he said polarisation was not needed because of crises on other fronts  such as terrorism, inflation, unemployment and lawlessness.

He left for Garhi Khuda Bux. Before this, people welcomed him at the Sindh-Punjab border at Kamoon Shaheed, where from he was escorted in a motorcade to Ubauro, Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo, Ghotki, Pano Aqil and then to Sukkur. Not a single elected representative or local leader of the PPP received him.

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