Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged an impartial inquiry into the Daraza Sharif’s poll killing incident and said the culprits involved should be awarded severe punishment.
He was talking to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah who called on him at Bilawal House on Tuesday. The chief minister briefed him about the Daraza incident and the local bodies election results of eight districts of the province where polling was held on Saturday. Senator Sherry Rehman was also present on the occasion.
Shah informed the PPP chairman that an independent group and an opposition party had fielded candidates in Daraza Sharif Union Council against each other as the PPP had not nominated any candidate in the said UC. He said investigations had started into the incident by senior and impartial police officers while judicial inquiry of the said incident had also been ordered.
Bilawal said such incidents were harmful for the growth of democracy and the administration should take proper measures to avert them in the next phases of local bodies elections. The CM also briefed the chairman about district-wise election results and congratulated him on an overwhelming majority in Larkana, Sukkur, Qambar-Shahdadot, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Ghotki districts.
‘Go Zardari Go’
The Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) and Sindh Writers and Thinkers Forum (SWTF) protested outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday against the murder of 13 political workers in Khairpur during local bodies elections.
Dozens of protesters reached the KPC they were displayed placards and chanted slogans against the Sindh government. They also chanted slogans of “Go Zardari Go”. Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, Nusrat Seher Abbasi, Nand Kumar and Dr Rafiq Bhanbhan, members of the Sindh Assembly, belonging to PML-F, led the protest demonstration.
Protestors demanded a judicial commission to probe the Khairpur incident. They alleged that the Sindh government was behind these killings.
Talking to media, the protest leaders said the Sindh government was behind the killing of political workers in Khairpur. “We reject the inquiry committee formed by the Sindh government. We want a judicial commission and free and fare investigation into this incident.” They also alleged that ROs, DROs and police had joined hands for rigging. They appealed to the ECP to take notice of this incident.
Nusrat Abbasi rejected the claim of provincial minister Nisar Khuhro that the victims were PPP workers. She said the chief minister should feel his responsibility as the incident took place in his district. “He (CM) even did not bother to meet the victim families,” she deplored.
She said they had no trust in the Sindh government. She demanded army and Ranger’s presence inside and outside the polling stations in the coming phase of local bodies’ election. If army and Rangers were not deployed in the second phase of LG elections, then it would result in bloodshed, Mathab Akbar warned.
