Political note: Wattoo asks Shahbaz to focus on governance

Asks CM to avoid giving uncalled for comments.

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Punjab president Manzoor Wattoo said on Monday there was no need for Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to mention the army chief in the context of the current political crisis.

“This might trigger an undesirable controversy,” Wattoo said in a statement.

He was commenting on the chief minister’s remarks that nobody dared harm democracy and the Constitution while Gen Raheel Sharif was the army chief.

The PPP leader said the army was rendering innumerable services in the war against terrorism.

“It was not prudent to single out the army chief as saviour of democracy and the Constitution to the exclusion of other stakeholders,” he said.

Wattoo said the entire nation was the custodian of democracy. He said civil society, legal fraternity, intellectuals, the army, the media and the judiciary were the stakeholders in the system.

He said top government functionaries should desist from making statements vitiating the political environment.

He said the interior minister had made a similar statement a few days ago and caused tensions in the parliament.

“Such uncalled for statements affect the efforts for creating an enabling environment for the smooth functioning of government,” Wattoo said.

He said the chief minister‘s comment was unnecessary. “This has only raised a question about his sense of proportion on matters of national importance.

It will not sink well in the relevant quarters.”

He said the chief minister should concentrate on providing relief to people from price hike, worsening law and order situation, load shedding, poverty and floods.

He said those responsible for the June 17 clashes in Model Town should be brought to book.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2014.