‘Conspiracies being hatched against PPP’
Sharmila Farooqui claims PML-N leaders making plans to take action against Pakistan Peoples Party.
KARACHI:
A recording was recently aired on a local television channel, in which Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Saifur Rehman and other PML-N leaders were heard making plans to take action against Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, said Sharmila Farooqui, the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information, in a press conference at the Sindh Secretariat building on Saturday.
“They [political leaders] were talking over the phone, suggesting punishments to be given to Asif Ali Zardari and other arrested PPP leaders,” Farooqui claimed.
While tests have also confirmed that it was indeed their voices, no action has been taken against these people, she said, demanding that the Supreme Court take suo motu action against “the political forces that had been hatching conspiracies against the PPP and its leaders”.
Former party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had also raised the issue at various platforms, informing the media and the judiciary about the conspiracies being hatched against her and her party’s leaders, but no one paid heed to it, said the adviser, adding that “the voices on the tape recorder are an eye opener for everyone and noone can rule them out”.
Farooqui claimed that while earlier, “the judges used to get permission to take action against anyone, the judiciary is currently independent and we assume that the chief justice shall take action against them.” The adviser added that although Rehman had also taken action against her family some time ago, she did not believe in revenge and will follow the “reconciliation policy” of her party.
“We think that PPP activists and its leadership have suffered a lot in fabricated cases and have spent almost 11 years in jail. Therefore, the judiciary and the media should take up this issue as well,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.
A recording was recently aired on a local television channel, in which Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Saifur Rehman and other PML-N leaders were heard making plans to take action against Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, said Sharmila Farooqui, the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information, in a press conference at the Sindh Secretariat building on Saturday.
“They [political leaders] were talking over the phone, suggesting punishments to be given to Asif Ali Zardari and other arrested PPP leaders,” Farooqui claimed.
While tests have also confirmed that it was indeed their voices, no action has been taken against these people, she said, demanding that the Supreme Court take suo motu action against “the political forces that had been hatching conspiracies against the PPP and its leaders”.
Former party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had also raised the issue at various platforms, informing the media and the judiciary about the conspiracies being hatched against her and her party’s leaders, but no one paid heed to it, said the adviser, adding that “the voices on the tape recorder are an eye opener for everyone and noone can rule them out”.
Farooqui claimed that while earlier, “the judges used to get permission to take action against anyone, the judiciary is currently independent and we assume that the chief justice shall take action against them.” The adviser added that although Rehman had also taken action against her family some time ago, she did not believe in revenge and will follow the “reconciliation policy” of her party.
“We think that PPP activists and its leadership have suffered a lot in fabricated cases and have spent almost 11 years in jail. Therefore, the judiciary and the media should take up this issue as well,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.