‘PPP will lead a protest march to Islamabad after Eidul Fitr’

Workers had gathered to express solidarity with Bilawal, not for protest, says Dhamrah

HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) spokesperson former senator Aajiz Dhamrah has said that the PPP will lead a protest march to Islamabad after Eidul Fitr. Talking to the media in Hyderabad on Thursday, Dhamrah said the party's leadership is determined to go ahead with the protest even if no other political party joins forces with them.

He said the police assault on PPP's workers in Islamabad has exposed the dictatorial streak of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government. He reminded the PTI of its shallow offer of providing a container at D-chowk in Islamabad to any party that wished to protest against the government. "The repression and arrests can't deter the PPP workers from the march".

Dhamrah said that the PPP workers gathered during the party's Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's appearance before National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to express solidarity. "The party didn't give a protest call," he clarified.

Bilawal accuses govt of intolerance as ICT bars workers from entering Islamabad

He reiterated PPP's demand for an inquiry commission to probe the leaked video of NAB's Chairperson Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, in the wake of the latter's tacit warning in an interview of initiating accountability of the ruling party. "We demand that a parliamentary commission be constituted to conduct the probe".

He condemned the government's alleged meddling in the matters of the judiciary while referring to the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faiz Esa of the Supreme Court. "The government wants to bring its own judges," he alleged.

Dhamrah said that the PTI's government and the interior ministry are still silent over the Waziristan incident. "Imran Khan is a selected prime minister. It is possible that Brig (r) Aijaz Shah, without getting permission from the PM, ordered the crackdown and arrest of the workers in Waziristan". He said that Waziristan's MNA Ali Wazir should be allowed to narrate the incident on the parliament's floor.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2019.