Punjab

Shahbaz a civilian Musharraf, says Raja Riaz

Riaz says the only difference between Musharraf and 'dictatorial' Shahbaz Sharif is the army uniform.

Express March 01, 2011

LAHORE: The only difference between former president Pervez Musharraf and the ‘dictatorial’ Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is the army uniform, said Raja Riaz Ahmed, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, on Monday.

Ahmed was talking to reporters at Data Darbar after he offered nawafils there, which he had announced he would offer in thanks once the PPP was ousted from the Punjab government.

He said that Sharif has been deceiving the nation by talking about a revolution, while he himself was living the life of a prince. Sharif, he said, should stop this “drama”.

Ahmed said that the PPP was determined to continue the politics of reconciliation and would not destabilise the Punjab government.

He said that the PPP MPAs in the Punjab would continue urging the provincial government to implement the 19-point agenda. “We will expose the PML-N’s inefficiencies and shortcomings,” he added.

He said that the PPP had still not resigned from the offices because their party leader had directed them not to do so. He said the party leader considered this against the Charter of Democracy (CoD). “We will follow the directions of our party leader as we know they are true to democracy,” he said.

He said that 106 PPP MPAs had complained to him that the chief minister was not paying heed to the problems in their constituencies and was not accepting their requests.

He said that the PPP had decided to record their concerns through a protest and hunger strike. “These are the only options left to us to pressure the Punjab government to eliminate lawlessness from the province,” he said.

Ahmed also said that adhering to the PPP’s politics of reconciliation, the party would always to be open to reconciliation and offering their support to the PML-N.

Ahmed refused to comment on turncoats.

Later, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, in a handout issued on Monday, said that instead of criticising the Sharifs, Ahmed should highlight the properties of his political leaders located in the UK and the rest of Europe and also the corruption cases against his leadership. The Hajj scandal and Pakistan Steel Mills case would be good to begin with, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

Mulla Toofhan | 13 years ago | Reply Mr Raja. People of Pakistan are simply sick of the mud slinging between political parties. They have listened to your useless talks enough. If you and all the others would put the same energy towards building Pakistan we would be first world country by now. It seems you guys are incapable of doing anything except talk trash. I can't believe you get paid for this

Sultan Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply It is right to say, PML-N is aggressive, and on the other hand PPP is defensive, both has been part of the provincial government, now separated and set the score against each other, that is tradition of our political history. What is being done, on the name of democracy, question before me is that perhaps trying to change the focus, avoiding the circumstances,being faced by the rulers of Libya.

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