PPP readies to remove ‘stain’: Sanjrani to face no-trust motion

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have come face to face after submission of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in the Supreme Court, inclusion of names of 172 people, including top PPP leaders, in the Exit Control List by the federal cabinet and the demand of the PTI Sindh leadership from Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to step down.

The PTI maintains that the era of Asif Ali Zardari has gone and his party men are deserting him, while the PPP leadership says the Tonga party has no guts to dislodge Murad Ali Shah’s government in Sindh through backdoor channel.

The PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s, spokesman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar while speaking in Geo News programme ‘Jirga’ said that the PPP has decided in principle to bring a no-confidence motion against the Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani. He said allegations of horse-trading were made against the PPP in the Senate elections, and now the PPP had decided to remove that stain. He said the PPP only needs the support of PML-N to remove Sadiq Sanjrani as the Senate Chairman.

PML-N leader Musadiq Malik, who was also a guest in the programme along with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, said the PML-N will support the PPP over the issue under a democratic procedure. He said the party leadership will take a final decision on this issue.

Fawad Chaudhry said the PTI wanted to bring the Senate chairman from Balochistan or tribal districts. He said the PTI MPAs who violated the party discipline in the Senate polls were expelled from the party.

Fawad Chaudhry dismissed the rumours of arrest of Bilawal, governor's rule in Sindh and abolition of the 18th Amendment. He said the PPP should remove Murad Ali Shah and name anyone else as Sindh chief minister.

“We want the change of CM Murad Ali Shah as his name has appeared in the JIT report in the money laundering and fake bank accounts case,” he said.

“Everyone knows what Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif did. The PPP and PML-N should support a fair investigation,” Fawad said.

He said it was difficult to expect moral ground from the PPP, therefore, the PTI was trying to put pressure on the chief minister to step down as he was facing criminal charges.

Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said if such a principle was followed, then Prime Minister Imran Khan, KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, former CM Pervaiz Khattak, Aleem Khan and Zulfi Bukhari should also be put on the ECL as they are facing the NAB cases. Fawad said charges are not formalised against anyone of them. He said resignation should be tendered when charges against a public office holder were formalised. Khokhar said they also wanted a transparent trial of their leader, but the NAB was under the PTI government and its minister was acting like its spokesman.

PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah said the arrest of the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would be a dangerous game, one that would create ripples in the country.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Khursheed Shah said Prime Minister Imran Khan is creating uncertainty and a crisis situation in the country. “He (Imran Khan) has done nothing except arresting politicians. He is being asked to do things which no other politician would do,” the PPP leader said.

Responding to a question regarding Bilawal’s arrest, Khursheed Shah said that a lot of courage was needed to arrest him. “It is not possible to arrest him, but nothing certain can be said about this government,” he said.

"There is no need for an in-house change in Sindh because the cases have been made on the basis of assumptions and it is not possible to impose the governor's rule in the province,” the senior PPP leader said, adding: “There is no place for it in the Constitution. Governor's rule can only be imposed through martial law.”

Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said in categorical terms that there would be no horse-trading in Sindh and that he considered horse-trading as bad as corruption.

During Geo News programme Naya Pakistan, he held out an assurance that the PTI would not do anything like horse-trading in Sindh. “If someone indulges in horse-trading, then he will also face action,” he said.

The governor, while replying to a question about reports of emergence of a forward bloc in the PPP, said that if a forward bloc was emerging in the PPP, then it was their own issue and they should take care of it.

Meanwhile, Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Zaidi claimed that the MPAs belonging to the ruling PPP in Sindh were making contacts to join the PTI.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, the minister said the ruling party in Sindh had destroyed health, education and other departments, and now was the time to take steps to change this system of corruption. The minister said the cases against Zardari were not framed by the PTI, but the PML-N government.

“The PPP demanded resignation from then prime minister Nawaz Sharif after he was named in the Panama JIT, and now Sindh’s CM has been named in the JIT, why he is not resigning?” he asked, adding: “We will protest, if the CM Sindh is not removed.”

Zaidi said the PTI government was committed to eradicating the ‘system of corruption and oppression’, adding that the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan will ensure that no misdeed was hidden from the public.

Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab denounced putting the names of prominent politicians on the ECL and said those who are talking about making a forward bloc in the Sindh Assembly should be reminded that their government had a lead of only four votes in the parliament.

Speaking to the media during his visit to Lyari, Murtaza Wahab termed the results of 2018 General Elections as false and ‘stolen’, and claimed that the PTI-led government could not resolve the core issues of the general public in the first five months of its tenure, and rather it has triggered a ‘tsunami’ in the country.

“How can you change the chief minister of Sindh?” he asked, adding that inquiries were also being conducted against Prime Minister Imran Khan and KP’s chief minister, so they should have also been ousted from power.

“PPP has already faced such cases in the past,” he said, adding that the party was not afraid of these tactics.

Provincial minister Nasir Hussain Shah in a media talk said the PPP leadership had decided that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah will continue serving in the office.

Blasting the PTI for "horse-trading", Nasir Hussain said a government, which came into power through dishonest means, cannot snatch the government from the PPP. He also said that placing Murad Ali Shah’s name on the ECL was aimed at depriving the province of its CPEC share.