Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo has welcomed the decision of the Punjab government to give free hand to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Lahore during their shut down protest on today.
He expressed these views while talking to journalists after seeing off twelve deserving Umra pilgrims who were leaving for Saudi Arabia on Sunday for Umra under the sponsorship of Amir Begum Welfare Trust and led by Robina Wattoo, ex- MNA and head of the trust.
Wattoo said that confrontation never suited the sitting government and therefore it should focus to diffuse the situation by not pushing the opposition to the wall. The repetition of the Model Town, Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad administrative tactics would have been further isolated the government of the Punjab in particular, he observed.
He reminded that the PML-N during the PPP government resorted to long march, train march and all kind of protests but the government did not take any illegal pre-emptive steps like the incumbent federal and Punjab governments had taken against PTI and other opposition parties.
To another question, Wattoo said that the elections of 2013 were rigged at a large scale and the former president described these elections as ‘ROs’ elections. He pointed out that the ROs services were placed under the Election Commission after their appointment as such but in 2013 they were not placed under the commission and understandably were getting instructions from different quarters. It was itself a bigger rigging by any measure, he maintained.
He refuted vehemently the reports of rift between the top leadership of PPP, adding that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto would be playing an active role in the country’s politics. He is the invaluable political asset for the party, he observed.
Earlier, Wattoo gave a resume of the educational, health and social services of the Amir Begum Trust to the needy, adding that five thousands and five hundred dialysis were carried out annually free of cost in Dipalpur Hospital which was equipped with the cutting edge technology.
He also thanked the governments of Japan, Australia, Norway, and Turkey for their technical and financial assistance to carry out the mission of the trust indiscriminately.
