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Mirza asks MQM: ‘PPP ready for courts, are you?’

By Irfan Ali

KARACHI: Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and a Pakistan People’s Party leader have offered themselves for accountability, asking leaders of PPP’s ally in the ruling coalition, the MQM, to offer themselves for accountability too.

“I am ready to appear before the chief justice of Pakistan for accountability, but all those who have served as the home minister during the last 10 years should also appear before the court for their accountability,” said Mirza, challenging those who criticised the PPP for NRO 2007. The home minister was not alone in a tit-for-tat response to all those who had launched a war of words and the media trial of the president and the PPP-led government on the NRO 2007 issue.

Highly-charged and jubilant workers and supporters of the PPP raised slogans like ‘we pray may Zardari rule for long’ and ‘from Sindh, Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan to Gilgit and Baltistan people support Asif Zardari and the PPP’. The participants kept fluttering the PPP’s tricolour flags and raised hands to express their support to the PPP, the government and the president. The message of the public meeting and the PPP leaders was clear that they would not play on their back foot from now on. The MQM was not the only target, as the PML-N was also criticised for its anti-PPP stance on the NRO.

Sindh Chief Minister and PPP Provincial President Qaim Ali Shah, senior leaders Prof ND Khan and Khursheed Shah, PPP Karachi chapter President Najmi Alam, PPP provincial ministers Zahid Bhurgri and Rafiq Engineer and PPP Women Wing’s Farzana Baloch also challenged the opponents.

“Greedy people have started raising hue and cry on the NRO. I challenge them to reopen all the cases, including the 3,500 cases of murders, torture and violence,” Mirza asserted. He vowed that mothers and fathers who have lost their sons, sisters who have lost their brothers and those who were tortured by drill machines and other inhumane means must get justice at all costs.

“The PPP has sacrificed for the sake of the oppressed and legitimate rights of the people that can be attained through democracy,” he said, adding that the PPP did not choose to live in London or Saudi Arabia to get power from backdoor channels.

He said he has offered himself before the chief justice and his performance should be compared with those who have served as Sindh home minister in the last 10 years. The CM asked PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to offer himself for accountability because ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf reprieved his conviction that was awarded by the courts.

“The PPP had always condemned the dictatorial and unconstitutional rule of Musharraf. So our opponents should demand Musharraf be brought to book for violation of the Constitution,” he urged. PPP Provincial General Secretary Taj Haider said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had made it quite clear that there was no war between infidelity and Islam in Pakistan.

“Bhutto made it clear that it is a war between the oppressors and the oppressed. Therefore, war on Zardari is a war on the oppressed people because Zardari is the heir of Bhutto’s political philosophy,” he added. PPP leaders supported Zardari’s political approach and said the oppressed should have a say in Pakistan’s affairs. Najmi Alam and Saeed Ghani also warned the opponents against crossing the red lines of the national reconciliation. They said the PPP respects political opposition, but conspirators would be given a tit-for-tat response.

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