PPP, PTI trade barbs over Machh killings

The members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) traded barbs on Thursday over Machh killings, which have sparked country-wide protests.

Speaking to the media after inaugurating a school in Hazara Colony, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab called for Prime Minister Imran Khan to “keep his ego aside and visit the Hazara community to share their grief.”

Separately, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah dubbed the Machh incident “an international conspiracy of the enemies of Pakistan.”

He too assailed the PM for keep delaying his visit to the slain miners’ families.

“I cannot wrap my head around why the prime minister has not reached Quetta yet,” he said while speaking to the media after meeting newly elected Karachi Press Club president Fazil Jameel and members of the governing body.

He said a PPP delegation had left for Quetta to visit the bereaved families, and so should the PM.

Shah said staging sit-ins was the right of the bereaved families, however adding that routes leading to hospitals should remain open for traffic.

Reacting to criticism towards the PM, PTI parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh accused the PPP of playing politics over the Machh tragedy.

Speaking to the media after a Sindh Assembly session, Sheikh questioned why any of PPP leaders hadn’t visited the victims of Model Colony plane crash and the Abbas Town tragedy.

He further alleged that the PPP was trying to turn the protests over Machh killing in a rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

“The PDM is playing dirty politics,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2021.