PPP demands action against May 9 rioters

The Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP-CEC) rejected the digital census on Friday and condemned the violence on May 9 that followed the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, calling it a black day.

In the meeting co-chaired by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Zardari, the top policy-making forum of the party emphasised that the population census must be carried out under same standard pattern without any discrepancies.

The forum passed a resolution, condemning the PTI for the ransacking of public and private properties and demanded action against the culprits involved in it. The resolution stated that those involved in the May 9 mayhem must be brought to justice.

Briefing the media about the discussions in the meeting, PPP Senior Vice President and Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said that CEC reposed full confidence in the leadership of party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Zardari.

The participants praised the efforts of Foreign Minister Bilawal for bringing Pakistan out of a diplomatic isolation. They appreciated an effective participation of Bilawal in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers meeting in India, she said.

“The meeting declared that Chairman Bilawal’s constant support for Kashmiris is an exemplary initiative and his expression of solidarity with the Kashmiris in the wake of India’s holding of the G20 meeting in Srinagar is also a commendable,” she added.

Rehman said The PPP-CEC condemned the orchestrated events of May 9, terming it a black day and demanded that all those committing such crimes be brought to justice, according to the law and the Constitution.

Also read: President urges PTI chief to denounce May 9 rioting

“The PPP strongly condemns the desecration of the martyrs' memorial in Sargodha, burning of the Jinnah House in Lahore, vandalism at the FC Fort in Dir and the statue of Shaheed Karnal Sher Khan, torching of the Swat Motorway Toll Plaza, arson at the Rawalpindi Metro Station and the Peshawar Radio Station, destruction of the Chagai Model and Edhi ambulance in Peshawar, and burning of passenger buses in Karachi," said the resolution.

What happened on May 9, Rehman said, this country had never seen such scenes before. The PPP did not take such measures even in the most difficult situations,” the climate change minister told reporters.
“Even after the judicial killing of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or on the martyrdom of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, it was not done in this way,” the minister added.

Rehman criticised the PTI, saying its attitude had always been that “if we are around then Pakistan survives” while the PPP considered that “Pakistan is our identity and comes first”. “On the black day of May 9 PTI crossed many red lines, she added.

“Its [PTI’s] mobbed violence is not tolerable for any state. What you saw on May 9 was not an expression of democratic rights, but an attempt at armed and violent challenges to the writ of the state,” the minister said.

In response to a question, Rehman said that the PTI leaders had themselves given the orders for spreading chaos, “but now they are changing their narrative”. She added: “The PTI people are master of U-turns.”

She said that the CEC meeting rejected the ongoing digital census in the country and demanded that the census should be uniform and qualitative throughout the country, adding that the census was still continuing in some areas and stopped in other parts.

"Double standards are not acceptable in the name of digital census. The meeting expressed its concern that this exercises has officially concluded but it still continues in some areas,” the minister stated.

Minister of State Faisal Karim Kundi, Sindh Minister of Information Sharjeel Inam Memon, Ali Madad Jatak, Bilawal House Spokesperson Surender Valasai, Mir Sohrab Mari and others were also present on this occasion.