Khursheed Shah offers help in brokering govt-opp talks

SUKKUR: The Accountability Court, Sukkur, on Monday adjourned the hearing of Rs1.23 billion corruption reference against PPP MNA Syed Khursheed Shah and other co-accused till March 15.

Later talking to newsmen, PPP leader Khursheed Shah offered to the PTI that if they wanted to hold a dialogue with the PPP, they should approach him and he would convince his party for doing so. He said due to absence of dialogue between the political parties, the country was passing through a tough time. He said it was up to the government whether to hold talks with the opposition or not in the larger interests of the country. He said the army chief and others tried to initiate a govt-opposition dialogue but the prime minister refused it.

He said blaming the opposition for horse trading in the Senate election was wrong as he alleged that the PTI sold the Senate tickets against Rs700 million. All that the PPP did was to highlight this reality before the public. He said the PTI gave the Senate ticket to Saifullah Abro against Rs350 million. He said the PTI government introduced mafias in the Senate election. People know that the votes of ministers Shahryar Afridi and Zartaj Gul and that of the prime minister were cancelled due to overwriting, he claimed.

Khursheed said that the opposition has 55 members in the Senate and was trying to increase its numbers to 56, while the PTI government has 47 senators. So in fairness of things, the Senate chairman should be from the opposition but the government was planning to rig the election of the Senate chairman like the Senate elections.