PPP to protest for Javed Hashmi

Staff Report

KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party led opposition in the Sindh assembly has assured the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that it will protest against the arrest of the PML-N (acting president) and ARD president, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, and detention of Asif Zardari, the husband of the PPP chairperson, in the forthcoming session of the assembly on Nov 7.

Protests will also be staged on the same day outside Karachi Press Club where Sindh MPAs plan to sign a letter reflecting their views against the arrests.“The provincial leadership of the ARD is meeting on Tuesday to discuss policy to expand the area of the protest,” said Nisar Khuhro, opposition leader in the Sindh assembly, to reporters after PML-N leaders Aijaz Shafi, Salim Zia, Zain Ansari and others met him at his assembly chamber on Monday.

They discussed joint protests against the arrest of Mr Hashmi and detention of Mr Zardari. The provincial general secretary of the PPP, Rashid Rabbani, and MPAs Sassui Paleejo, Murad Shah, Shazia Mari and Rafiq Engineer also attended the meeting.

However, the PML-N in its press release claimed that the protest would be staged against Mr Hashmi’s arrest, and did not mention Mr Zardari.

“It’s intolerable because the arrest of Mr Hashmi and the detention of Mr Zardari is a mockery of law,” said Mr Khuhro. He added that the person who wrote the letter was free. He claimed that the Sindh governor, ministers and advisers were part of this heinous case.

“Why have they not been arrested?” he asked. He claimed the elected representative’s arrest was a joke of democracy.

Zain Ansari, who is also the provincial chief of the ARD, claimed a baseless case had been framed against Mr Hashmi, who he claimed was a patriotic Pakistani. “General Pervez Musharraf and his cronies should be tried in accordance with Article 6 of the constitution,” he urged. “We’ll not accept a person in uniform as president since we reject the LFO.” He said arrests could not intimidate the Muslim Leaguers.

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