Calling for the establishment of an impartial interim setup to hold general elections in the country, Sindh National Front (SNF) chief Mumtaz Bhutto blasted the “Zardari regime” on Saturday for failing to maintain peace in Karachi, where over 6,000 people have fallen victim to politically-motivated targeted killings during President Asif Ali Zardari’s four-year rule.
The nationalist leader also rejected talks of a Mohajir province by those who, he said, were demanding a separate province on the land they never owned, historically.
Talking to the media at the Karachi Press Club, Bhutto lashed out at the present government for unleashing an unprecedented looting in the country.
The SNF chairman also alleged that the “lame” Sindh government, which he claimed was being run by MNA Faryal Talpur and not Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, was covertly backing Khuhros in their attack on poor farmers of the Bhutto tribe in Larkana.
The rulers, he said, were depriving the Bhuttos, despite ruling the country in the name of Bhuttos.
Terming the ongoing bloodshed in Karachi as an old phenomenon, the SNF leader said that over 6,000 people had reportedly lost their lives to targeted incidents in the metropolitan over the past four years of the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government.
“There is an urgent need to do something to get rid of them,” he warned, saying that letting Zardari continue “his politics of corruption and forgiveness” for another seven or eight months would take the country to the brink of disintegration.
Calling for a non-political interim body to hold general elections and make the corrupt rulers accountable, Bhutto said that all of Supreme Court’s verdicts – be it on rental power plants, the prime minister’s son, or the election of fake degree-holding legislators on the basis of bogus voter lists – fell on deaf years of the executive.
The nationalist leader claimed that Zardari, by sticking to the presidency, was transgressing Articles 47, 62 and 63 of the constitution, barring the top slot for a person nominated in criminal cases and holding dual offices.
“If this is not healed now, the country would dismember. Every province has taken its own way,” he warned.
Bhutto went on to blame the provincial government for embezzling 50 percent funds in, what he described as, “unnecessary” development works being carried out by the government in Larkana to gain political mileage.
On the other hand, he said that the infrastructure in his area, despite being in a dilapidated condition, was being ignored.
Asked for his views on calls for a Mohajir province in the city, the SNF chief said that the demand would have been justified, had it come from those historically owning some land in Sindh.
“Migrating to someone else’s land, getting strength there, and then demanding a separate province is not right,” he said.
Talking about the Seraiki province, Bhutto said that the demand for a province in Punjab was justified as the supporters own the land.
To another query, the nationalist leader said that a proposal to merge with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was under consideration by the party’s central committee, which had also been meeting with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
