Photo courtesy PPP Media Cell
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday demanded that anyone involved in the violent protests of May 9, triggered by the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, should be charged and prosecuted under all relevant laws.
Announcing the decision of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC), which met at Bilawal House in Karachi under the joint chair of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and former president Asif Ali Zardari, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said May 9 had been a “black day in the history of Pakistan.”
Addressing a press conference after the CEC meeting, she said authorities should ensure that all culprits involved in arson and violence following the arrest of Khan are brought to book. Alleging that there was evidence proving that PTI leaders had issued orders for the acts of violence witnessed last week, she noted that they were still refusing to accept any responsibility for the chaotic scenes nationwide.
Lamenting that the violent incidents of May 9 had no precedence in Pakistan’s history, she recalled that PPP supporters had faced numerous hardships and never resorted to similar unrest. Even after the assassinations of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, she stressed, the workers of the party had resisted destruction for the national interest. Specifically pointing to former president Zardari, who had urged unity and cohesion after Benazir’s assassination, she said he had preferred the national interest over political interests.
Unfortunately, she claimed, the PTI leadership had always opted superseding its political goals rather than Pakistan’s integrity. The PTI, she said, had crossed all “red lines” of the country’s politics.
The CEC meeting also rejected the initial results of the ongoing digital census, demanding that uniform standards be adopted nationwide for the enumeration exercise.
During the meeting, she added, the CEC noted that the census was ongoing in some areas despite being concluded in others, describing this as unfair. Rehman said the participants of the CEC had all reposed their full confidence in the leadership of Bhutto-Zardari and Zardari.
In a Twitter posting after the meeting, Bhutto-Zardari condemned the “May 9 carnage” and reiterated his party’s concerns about the ongoing digital census. “The PPP CEC met today to unequivocally condemn the May 9 carnage wreaked by PTI mobs in many parts of the country; to call attention to growing concerns on the census process, and to the economic challenges faced by the public,” he wrote. “The PPP believes that all those involved in the violence be tried under the Constitution and the law. Challenging the writ of the state with violence is unacceptable and delegitimizes the democratic credentials of those engaged in violence,” he added.
A statement issued by the PPP said the meeting had also deliberated on the prevailing political and economic situation of the country.