Senate upset dents PPP, PML-N bonhomie

MNA Javed Latif accuses party of compromising on Benazir murder case

LAHORE:

A day after a Twitter spat between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Joint Secretary Talal Chaudhry and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, another PML-N leader tried to hit a sensitive nerve of the PPP – the murder case of late Benazir Bhutto.

Mian Javed Latif, a National Assembly member from the PML-N, said that if the PPP had not compromised on Benazir murder case during its five-year tenure, the national leaders today would not have faced the threats to their lives.

Talking to The Express Tribune Latif said that the during its 2008-13 tenure, the PPP government should have brought at least one accused – whom the late former prime minister and PPP chairperson had suspected in her lifetime – to justice. Though Latif did not mention any name, his reference was to former president Pervez Musharraf, who he said, was allowed to walk free.

“If her murderer was brought to the book it would have closed the chapter of threats to the lives of political leaders,” he added. According to the PML-N lawmakers, it was the PPP’s failure because of which the national leaders faced threats to their lives even today.

Read Fawad, Khokar engage on social media over Senate 'spy cameras'

Latif was asked about his recent statement in which he could be heard saying during a TV talk show that if something happened to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, “the PML-N, unlike the PPP, will not raise the slogan of Pakistan Khapay [We want Pakistan]”. In reply, he said, ‘Pakistan Khapay’ slogan loses its meaning if there is no rule of law. “Pakistan Khapay will only be said when every citizen have the equal rights,” he said.

“We [always] talk about the rule of law and the implementation of those laws.” Responding to the allegations from the PML-N leader, PPP’s Chaudary Manzoor said that some accused in the Benazir murder case “were killed in drone strikes, while others were facing courts”. He refused to offer any further comments on this matter.

Hasan Murtaza, a PPP lawmaker in the Punjab Assembly, stressed that the party had not made any compromise on the murder case but said that they were keeping their silence on this and several other issues because of the their leadership’s decision to move forward with them. He said that the PPP does not do the PML-N-style politics. “We have always guarded democracy. For the PPP it was, is and will always be Pakistan first,” he added.