Laying blame: Zulfiqar Mirza needs treatment, say PPP leaders

According to them, Mirza's allegations on party leaders are conspiracies.

KARACHI: Former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza's mental stability was brought into question by leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) at a press conference at the PPP media cell on Sunday.

According to them, Mirza is mentally disturbed and should get himself treated.

"Many of our leaders have sacrificed their lives for the  party," said PPP MPA Nawab Ali Wassan. "We have given our lives for Pakistan's democracy and people like Mirza have always been used as a tool to break the party."

Wassan talked about how Mirza had claimed several times that he was a dear friend of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari. "Is this the way a sincere friend behaves?"



He said that the PPP demands that Mirza be hospitalised and treated as he changes his statements every now and then. "Such conspiracies cannot finish the PPP," he said.

Censuring him for his fierce criticism of the party, Wassan said that if he has so many issues with the PPP leadership, why he doesn't ask his wife and son to resign from the party. "They are no one without the party's support," said Wassan. "No one like them can be a counsellor, MNA or MPA without the support of the co-chairperson of PPP."

Another MNA, Imran Zafar Laghari, quoted how Mirza once said that 'everything I have belongs to my friend, Zardari'. He asked how Mirza could use such words against a friend who had given him everything. He added that the PPP discouraged the use of arms and weapons and 'never did politics by making people fearful'. He went on to criticise Mirza for using weapons and threatening people in the name of PPP. "Our elders never did such politics and we should also criticise this act," he said.

Laghari said that at a time when we are working towards eliminating terrorism and making the country a better place, this attitude of abusing and threatening the police while praising the Rangers and Army is not right. "PTI and Imran Khan have introduced this ideology to mistreat the police force," said Laghari.

"This was the same PPP and Zardari under whose governance Mirza was home minister and his wife was the speaker of the assembly," said the special assistant to the chief minister, Ehsanur Rehman Mazari. "What happened today? Why has he forgotten everything?"

According to him, there is no political solution for Mirza, only a medical one. "We can also use the same kind of language as him," he said. "PPP has faced many conspiracies since its inception — from Ziaul Haq till Zulfiqar Mirza, everyone has had the same motto, which is to finish the PPP."

Responding to a question, Wassan said that the PPP is still open to discussion with Fehmida Mirza. "We would have responded if Fehmida Mirza had called the party's leadership and discussed the issue instead of doing press conferences," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2015.