PPP to fully back Karachi operation, says Bilawal

KARACHI: The Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on Sunday assured Director General Sindh Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar that his party will extend full cooperation to the Karachi operation.
The PPP chairman made this assurance at a meeting with the DG Rangers at the Chief Minister’s House. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Corps Commander Karachi Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar were also present during the meeting.
The meeting was held just before the extraordinary session of the provincial Apex Committee in which the PPP chairman did not take part. Sources said the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi against terrorists and other steps being taken to eliminate terrorism and crimes in other parts of the province came under discussion during the meeting.
The interaction between the civil and military leadership in the province at the CM House gained significance in the backdrop of recent strained ties between the PPP’s Sindh government and the Rangers engaged in an anti-terror operation in Karachi and in other parts of the province. It was also quite unusual on part of head of the provincial ruling party to meet the top military and paramilitary commanders in the province in presence of the provincial chief executive. Certain administrative, governance matters and recent actions/raids of the paramilitary force in Karachi also came under discussion.
The civil-military ties got upset lately when the Sindh government decided that under the renewed provisions of the Constitution, the Sindh Assembly would give final assent and endorsement to special anti-terror and policing powers periodically being given to the Rangers under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Till the Sindh Assembly giving the necessary assent under the Constitution, the Sindh government, for the interim period, authorised giving such special policing powers to the Rangers for only 30 days in Karachi Division only to avoid stripping the paramilitary force of decisive authority while taking action against terrorists and criminals.
Later, at a press briefing, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon termed the interaction between the PPP chairman and corps commander in the presence of the Sindh CM a usual courtesy meeting as there was nothing unusual about the meeting. Sharjeel said the meeting had taken place as the PPP chairman was not supposed to take part in the meeting of the provincial apex committee at the CM House.
The minister said Bilawal Bhutto’s visit to the CM House was fully scheduled as he had to chair certain other meetings there, including one on the flood situation in Sindh. He said the PPP chairman in his interaction with the corps commander Karachi had highly praised the role of the armed forces engaged in Operation Zarb-e-Azb to eliminate terrorists mainly in the tribal areas. He said the PPP chief at the meeting greatly appreciated the role of the armed forces personnel embracing martyrdom and also other soldiers who had put their lives in danger to conduct a decisive operation against the terrorists.
Sharjeel Memon said the chairman of the PPP in the meeting also reiterated fullest and unconditional support of the party to the armed forces and paramilitary forces doing operation against the terrorists in any part of the country, be it Waziristan or other parts of the tribal belt.
Bilawal Bhutto also reiterated at the meeting the fundamental stance of the PPP, which according to him, from the day one had always condemned terrorists and their anti-peace activities while calling for stern and decisive action against them. Other political parties present in mainstream continued with their dubious stance on the issue as on certain occasions such parties had preferred mediatory role on the behalf of terrorists while considering them their allies. “It was the late PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who in her last public speech at the election rally in Rawalpindi, had expressed her desire to hoist the flag of Pakistan again in the terrorist-infested Swat region,” Memon said.