PPP warns of sit-ins if Zardari's friends not produced in court

Nisar Khuhro accuses prime minister of following General Zia's footsteps

KARACHI: Protesting against the disappearance of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari's friends, party leaders announced sit-ins and protests in various locations of Sindh on Sunday.

"If Ghulam Qadir Marri and Ashfaque Leghari are not produced in court within 24 hours, then we will have no other option but to start protests," said PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro while addressing a press conference along with PPP leaders Saeed Ghani and Waqar Mehdi.



"These people have been arrested because of their close association with our leadership and this is being done with the consent of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif," he said adding that Zardari and other PPP leaders have been targeted and efforts are also afoot to defame them. "Conspiracies are always being hatched against us. If Zardari is the actual target, then all of us, from Bilawal Bhutto to local leaders, are his friends and sympathisers. So please come and arrest us too," said Khuhro.

Khuhro asked the federal government and its agencies to reveal the agents who arrested the PPP leaders. "If they were arrested by Rangers or the National Accountability Bureau under any allegations, then please inform us and present them in court," he said.



"There is no difference between the government and dacoits if the former is involved in kidnapping," Khuhro said, adding that there has been a long dispute whether the establishment or the masses should hold the actual power to rule the country. "Since the PPP is the representative party of the masses, its leaders have always confronted the policies of establishment and they will continue to do so," he said.

According to Khuhro, such actions are being taken because some elements are afraid of the PPP's soaring popularity and want to harass its leaders. "They do not know that we have set a precedent of rendering our lives for the cause and will not give in to any pressurising tactics," he said.

Criticising the Federal Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar, Khuhro said he has started to take vindictive measures because PPP exposed his nefarious designs against his own government. Commenting on the prime minister, Khuhro said the PM draws inspiration from his political mentor General Zia.