Those who confuse terrorism with politics should not forget its 60,000 victims

 ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Tuesday

KARACHI: Terrorists have no limit to which they can go in being cruel, said Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Tuesday.

Shahzeb said that Shahbaz Taseer has narrated the ordeal that he went through during his five-year captivity.

Those who confuse terrorism with politics must watch Shahbaz Taseer’s interview in which he tells of the cruelty he was subjected to by his terrorist captors. Shahzeb said that pictures of the cruel episode about which Shahbaz Taseer has talked in detail had already been issued while he was still in captivity of terrorists.

“Those of our leaders who try to paint terrorism as a political issue usually fail to take into account those 60,000 lives lost to terrorism,” Shahzeb said. Shahbaz Taseer has been a lucky person who survived the captivity of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Taliban and managed to come back home alive.

He said that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan follows Daesh, and the tales of cruelty to which Daesh subjects its prisoners are well-known the world over. Shahbaz Taseer not only endured cruelty of the terrorists but he also narrowly escaped the drone attacks while being in the captivity of the terrorists who were the target of those drone attacks.

Moving on to a different topic, Shahzeb said that 10 years ago, a pledge had been made to form an independent institution for accountability. However, the pledge has not been redeemed yet. It has been 10 years now since the Charter of Democracy was signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The PPP and the PML-N have ruled the country since 2008, but the agreement of 2008 has not yet been turned into a reality.

Shahzeb said that if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif still remembers the agreement he had made with Benazir Bhutto, he should go ahead and implement the agreement. Shahzeb Khanzada said that the opposition has now come up with 70 questions for the prime minister to answer. Tomorrow the opposition would address parliament. Imran Khan will also address parliament. Nevertheless, the opposition’s strategy is still not clear.

He said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has decided to part ways with the combined opposition, causing a schism in the ranks of the opposition in its stand on the Panama Leaks. Expressing his opinion on yet another topic, Shahzeb Khanzada said that the project to divide the Ottoman Empire has completed 100 years. The Middle East is still reaping the harvest of the seed of the conflict that Britain and France had sown a hundred years ago.

A leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while talking to Shahzeb Khanzada on the programme, said that the opposition had drawn its strategy on how to deal with the response of the prime minister to the opposition’s questions. The opposition had already drawn the 70 questions to be put to the prime minister well in advance. The joint opposition has unanimity on the TORs. The MQM had also expressed its agreement on the TORs. However, if the MQM wants to engage in a dialogue with the government behind the scene, then it is their prerogative. “We don’t want to compel anybody into siding with us,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

The PTI leader said that Pervez Musharraf had failed to prove charges against Nawaz Sharif because there were no Panama Papers then, and there was no global consensus against corruption.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Imran Khan is ready to be held accountable before the assembly and the judicial commission.  “Our target is not Nawaz Sharif. We are simply demanding that the process of accountability should begin from Nawaz Sharif. We are not saying that others should be allowed to go scot free,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi said. He said that he has doubts over the government’s sincerity in forming a judicial commission.

The PTI leader said that Imran Khan was not suffering from any inferiority complex. Imran is very confident. He has never been so confident before.  Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the prime minister was supposed to arrive in the assembly at 5pm, but he came at 6.30pm. Imran Khan had been fully prepared to deliver his speech. 

“We informed Imran about the opposition’s unanimous decision. He agreed with it and said that he would talk later,” the PTI leader said. He said he hopes that when Imran addresses the assembly no one should interrupt him just as the opposition accorded Nawaz Sharif the opportunity to address the assembly without any interruption. He said that he expects the government to exhibit the same kind of dignity that the opposition had exhibited during Nawaz Sharif’s speech. However, if the government attempts to interrupt Imran Khan, then it should keep in mind that the president is scheduled to address the parliament on June 2, and then nobody should complain to us.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the opposition is ready to draw the TORs with the government and even on new law. However, if the government adopts delaying tactics, then it should know that we have our options.

An MQM leader, Barrister Saifullah, told Shahzeb Khanzada on the programme that the MQM has not entered into any deal with the government. The MQM decision not to support the combined opposition on the issue of Panama Leaks is a principled decision.

He said that after the names of the leaders of the government and that of the opposition appeared in Panama Leaks, the moral grounds of the opposition’s movement have become weaker.