Machh tragedy: Interior minister, govt should have focused on their job, says Bilawal

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD/THATTA: The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said if the interior minister and the federal government had done their jobs instead of “doing politics and making noise over PDM”, then incidents like the one in Balochistan's Machh coalmine might have been avoided.

Bilawal condemned the Sunday’s incident in which armed men kidnapped and shot dead at least 11 coalmine workers, demanding that the PTI government implement the National Action Plan (NAP) and bring it into action. He said the NAP has been forgotten ever since the incumbent government came into power. He said major terrorists are escaping and that culprits involved in the Army Public School (APS) attack were also let go. “Innocent people are being left at the mercy of these terrorists. No investigations are being conducted nor is anyone being caught,” the PPP chairman alleged.

Bilawal made these comments during a visit to the Shirazi House in Thatta, where he, along with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Irrigation Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, offered condolences to late Syed Ijaz Ali Shah Shirazi’s brother, Syed Shafqat Shah Shirazi, on the former provincial adviser’s death. Bilawal said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) never asked for any kind of “relief” and it instead sought democracy, a level-playing field, and an end to unemployment, inflation, and poverty. He said the government only brought up the NRO when it had no answer to the PDM’s criticism, but the people can “clearly see through these tactics.

Answering questions regarding any disagreements between the PDM and PPP, he said his party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) endorsed every move by the PDM. Decisions on contesting the upcoming by-elections or any other elections would be made from the opposition coalition’s platform “with consensus”, he emphasised. The PPP chairman also rubbished Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmad’s comments when the latter had claimed the PPP had “won” after the PDM “accepted defeat”.

“The PDM’s win is the PPP’s win and the PPP’s win is the PDM’s win, so we are one. When the PDM wins, the people of Pakistan win,” he said. Bilawal said the PTI government had extended amnesty schemes only for construction “mafias” but was not ready to provide relief to labourers, the poor, and the white-collar individuals. Referring to the premier’s comments on the government’s “preparation”, as well as a smooth transition between governments throu­gh briefings, he said PM Imran Khan kept “admitting” over and over again he was on training wheels with no experience of being in power.

“If the premier did not have the required experience, then he should leave his (position of) power because he has no solution to the [people’s] problems”, Bilawal said. He added that since the PTI held a sit-in at Islamabad’s Aabpara Chowk, the PDM, too, would have to hold its protest there. Bilawal underscored that if the prime minister resigns, a political path — which includes a national dialogue option — could be pondered upon.

Meanwhile, the PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz said in a statement that the society received deep wounds with the beginning of new year. She said the killers of labourers deserve no concession. She said the families of the slain labourers must be compensated. The JI chief Sirajul Haq, ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan and QWP Chairman Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao also condemned the murder of coalminers and demanded immediate arrest of culprits. They demanded the government to compensate the bereaved families and provide justice to them.