Punjab politics: Riaz, Basra launch attack on Opp leader

Wattoo distances PPP from demand for Mehmoodur Rasheed’s replacement.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Peoples Party leaders Raja Riaz and Shaukat Basra have demanded the removal of Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, accusing him of being soft on the government.

Riaz and Basra – who served as opposition leader and deputy opposition leader in the previous Punjab Assembly, respectively – made the demand at a press conference on Thursday, accusing the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader of failing to hammer the provincial government over rising prices and terrorism.

PPP Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo later stressed that the PPP leaders’ statements did not represent the party’s official view.

Speaking at the Lahore Press Club, Riaz and Basra urged PTI chief Imran Khan to replace Rasheed and threatened to hold protests if he did not do so.

Riaz alleged that Rasheed had made a deal with the provincial government to stay quiet about the PML-N’s “anti-people policies” after his brother was appointed to a senior office in the Lahore Development Authority (LDA). The PTI’s ‘tsunami’ had proved to be worthless, he said.

He said that the PPP wanted a strong opposition in the province and this was only possible if all opposition parties cooperated. Khan should select a reputable MPA as opposition leader, he said, adding that Rasheed was also an unacceptable choice for chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

Basra, meanwhile, criticised the PML-N, saying the Sharif brothers were “stealing people’s right to live”.

Riaz claimed that the PPP parliamentary party fully backed his demand for a change in opposition leader, as the current one was not taking on the government on terrorism, inflation and unemployment.

But Wattoo, the PPP Punjab president, later clarified that Riaz’s statement was not the party’s policy.

He said neither the central nor the Punjab PPP leadership backed his claim for a change in opposition leader. At the same time, he claimed that there were no divisions in the party.

He described Rasheed as a respectable politician.

In response to the PPP leaders’ press conference, Rasheed said that they had apparently recognised that the PTI was the true opposition to the PML-N in the province. About the allegation that he had made a deal with the government over his brother’s appointment in the LDA, he said that such underhanded dealings were a characteristic of the PPP, not the PTI.

Rasheed pointed out that the PTI had already planned a protest against inflation in Lahore on November 1. He said that the PPP leaders had called the press conference at the behest of the PML-N.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2013.