Opposition view : ‘Abbottabad operation was a drama’

JUI leader speaks out against parliament, Zardari and PML-N.

SUKKUR:

Senate opposition leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) (JUI-F) bashed former president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, claiming that the latter were all ‘products of Musharraf’s National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)’.

Haidery made the observation while addressing a seminar held at the district council hall in Sukkur in to honour the late Maulana Mohammad Murad Halejvi on Thursday afternoon.

“About 8,042 people benefited from the NRO,” he said, “not a single person from the JUI is among them.” In 2007, the NRO granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats. Haideri claimed it was aimed to waive cases that implicated Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Musharraf himself.

He went on to criticise the language Zardari and Sharif used against each other. “Both of them have resorted to personal attacks, leaving aside decent politics,” said Haideri. “People are living in deprivation and insecurity while politicians are busy mud slinging.”

Haideri also spoke of recent events such as the attack on the PNS Mehran base and the Peshawar bomb blasts. He called the Abbottabad operation a ‘drama’ and claimed that it was meant to blackmail Pakistan further. After the Abbottabad incident, parliament unanimously adopted the resolution demanding an end to the drone attacks, he said. “Such resolutions were also adopted in 2008 and 2009, but they are yet to be implemented.”

He felt that the resolution, that warns of repercussions if the US or Nato forces violate Pakistani territory, is ineffective as nothing has been done yet. “Another part of the resolution said that in case of drone attacks, Nato’s supplies should be cut, but to no avail,” he continued. “They decided to review Pakistan-US ties in light of the Abbottabad operation during an in-camera briefing, but the PPP and PML-N don’t want to anger the US.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2011.