Military operation: Athar Abbas’s statement unwise, ill-timed says Wattoo

LAHORE:

Pakistan Peoples Party Punjab president Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo on Tuesday criticised former Inter-Services Public Relations director general Athar Abbas’s statement that former army chief Gen (r) Ashfaq Kayani had delayed the military operation against terrorists in North Waziristan. Wattoo termed Abbas’s statement “unwise, inappropriate and ill-timed”. 

“His statement has neither boosted the morale of the people, nor helped the ongoing military operation in any way,” Wattoo said. In his speech at Larkana, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had raised a powerful voice against terrorists when he said that such elements were neither Muslim, nor Pakistanis because they did not recognise the writ of the state, he said. The PPP leader said government, civil society and all political parties were supporting the military operation now.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2014.