KARACHI - Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday decided to remove barriers from Bilawal House after Rangers initiated a campaign in the metropolis to remove barricades from the entire city without accepting any pressure.
The move came after the Rangers removed barriers from various places in the city including from MQM Headquarters Nine-Zero and the residence of former military ruler and president, General (r) Pervez Musharraf.
Initially, the PPP leaders gave an impression that the Bilawal House barriers would not be removed at any cost as they were placed due to security threats to former president Asif Ali Zardari - whose wife Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb attack at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi in a Taliban attack. The home department also issued a letter to the DG Rangers, calling him not to remove these barriers, citing severe security threats to the PPP leadership residing there. The IG Sindh also supported the barriers at Bilawal House, citing the same stance taken from the home department.
However, in a surprise move on Tuesday, PPP vice president Sherry Rehman, in a statement issued from Bilawal House, said, “Despite security threats, we are removing the barriers in front of Bilawal House on the instructions of Zardari.” The statement further said necessary directives had been issued to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah in this regard.
Commenting on removal of safety barriers from the Bilawal House, Sindh PPP general secretary Taj Haider said provision of security by the government was directly related to the threat level to a person or place. “Sensitive places like embassies of USA, UK, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries had been provided adequate security by the government.
Barriers had been erected near those sensitive places and roads had been closed for vehicular traffic,” he said in a statement issued on Tuesday. He said that it was a similar case for Bilawal House where not only the threat level was very high but whose residents and their near ones had been martyred in the past.
He said that the demand for removing barriers around Bilawal House was not only illogical but was also driven by hatred and prejudice. “Why did those elements not demand removal of barriers near US Embassy or British High Commission, he questioned.”
Notwithstanding the offer of Zardari to remove barriers around the Bilawal House, Sindh government should ensure adequate security for all sensitive places including Bilawal House, he demanded.