close
Friday March 29, 2024

PPP’s power show draws Opposition’s ire

By our correspondents
October 17, 2016

Bilawal successfully manages to show street muscle in Karachi, particularly in Lyari, but opposition parties including MQM, PTI flay PPP for using state machinery,

causing inconvenience to commuters

By mustering an impressive number of participants for its rally in Karachi on Sunday, the Pakistan People’s Party put up an effective show of street muscle, particularly in Lyari which is considered a turf that had somewhat slipped out of the party’s grip because of the gang violence in the area.

However, opposition parties have raised questions over the extent to which state machinery had been used to make the PPP’s “Shuhada Rally” a success, while also laying into the provincial ruling party for massively inconveniencing commuters.

The rally was held to pay homage to the PPP activists and supporters killed in the twin bomb attacks on the homecoming rally of slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto near Karsaz on 18 October, 2007.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Karachi leader Imran Ismail maintained that the money spent on the rally was paid through the national exchequer.

He added that expenditure of the bombproof truck used in the rally to carry the party’s leaders the 8,000 cops and three DIGS deployed for the security of the rally was borne by the government.

The PTI leader also said the ruling PPP had shut down the city for its rally causing difficulties for commuters, especially patients being carried in ambulances.

“I have never seen in my life that martyrs are being paid tribute to by dancing on the roads,” he added.

Referring to PPP chairman Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari’s speech wherein he had said that a player had assigned the task to hunt down the tiger, assumedly a reference to PTI chief Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Ismail said these remarks showed that the PPP was anti-army party.

Ismail said the PPP and the PML-N were on the same pitch. He recalled that the PTI had accepted the PPP’s assurance over the Panama Leaks issue, but now it was sure that the latter would never raise its voice against corruption.

“The PPP chairman has said that he would not go for the accountability of the PML-N and today’s rally has proved this,” he added.

 

MQM’s criticism

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan chief Dr Farooq Sattar told The News that the roads of Karachi were sealed using containers for the PPP rally causing immense problems for commuters.

“Even funeral processions weren’t able to reach graveyards,” he added.

He said the MQM-P was not against staging a rally for martyrs but the city including major thoroughfares Sharea Faisal and MA Jinnah Road should not have been shut down.

MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari said the road leading to the Civil Hospital was closed for the rally and that caused great inconvenience to patients.

“The whole city was held hostage in the name of the rally,” he added.

Subzwari said citizens were unable to catch their trains and flights and patients could not reach hospitals.

Former chief minister Ghaus Ali Shah said it was an unfortunate practice that all political leaders shut down roads for their rallies.

He added that there should have been alternate arrangements so the citizens should nto suffer.