PPP's Kaira urges political reconciliation

Amid a celebratory national mood following Pakistan's military success against India at the borders, senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira, without naming PTI, said it was high time to bridge the political divide.

He advised Khan's party to make amends and called on the government to adopt a policy of forgiveness.

At the same press conference, PPP Central Punjab General Secretary Syed Hasan Murtaza, taking a swipe at Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari for crediting Nawaz Sharif with war planning, said that "at least one should lie within some limits". He said repeated lies, if not publicly exposed, begin to sound like the truth.

Murtaza asserted that the real credit for making Pakistan's defence invincible belonged to the PPP leadership.

"If there's any one party that had a role in strengthening Pakistan's defence - from signing the MoU for the JF-17 to building heavy industries, from weapons to tanks, planes to missiles — it's the PPP," he said.

He credited both the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the late Benazir Bhutto, claiming that Bhutto launched Pakistan's atomic programme, a decision that ultimately cost him his life. "Anyone can blow up a bomb and take credit for it."

Murtaza asserted that other parties could at best take credit for merely continuing the defence programmes initiated by PPP governments. "Others should try to lay claims to their achievement by posting photos," he added. He also took a jibe at Rana Sanaullah for "falsely claiming that the war was over on May 7".