Rental power was for the people: President

President Zardari expresses disappointment that ZA Bhutto case was to be decided.

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH:

After his son, it was the president’s turn to take aim.

Addressing a gathering outside the Bhutto mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh early Wednesday morning, President Asif Ali Zardari expressed disappointment that the ZA Bhutto case was yet to be decided.

“Last year, I thought that by this time the judiciary would have wiped out this black spot (the ZA Bhutto ‘judicial murder’),” he said in reference to the pending case in the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, in apparent criticism of the apex court’s recent decision to scrap contentious rental power deals, he said, the courts were more interested in the fact that a 50MW plant had been installed in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh. He said that these power plants were providing relief to the people.

He questioned the long period of time it had taken the Supreme Court to reopen the Asghar Khan petition, which dealt with the use of illicit money by intelligence agencies to prop up politicians against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He said that the no judge’s or individual’s decision is superior to the decision of the people – adding that they had spoken in favour of Bhutto.

He said the prime minister was only being targeted for challenging “Takht-e-Lahore” (Lahore’s rule over south Punjab). The president also invited all stakeholders to work together to take the country towards prosperity. He claimed that there was conspiracy afoot to pit ethnicities and provinces against each other – but he would not allow them to be successful. He said that PPP’s war was against poverty.

Before the president, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, who is defending the prime minister in a contempt case, also criticised some sections of the media for misreporting his statements on the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2012.