PPP among extortionists, spoiled peace: Nawaz

NAWABSHAH (Agencies) - PML-N President Nawaz Sharif Friday demanded the government ban political parties having militant wings, asking the parliamentarians to play their role for this purpose as he bemoaned governments own involvement in the prevailing unrest in the country. The government is involved in spoiling peace in the country, Nawaz alleged, saying that politics should not be done at the cost of peace. Karachi was a peaceful city but the peace was destroyed and those who are involved in such heinous acts cannot serve the country, he said while addressing a press conference in Daulatpur. He however asked the government to send references to the Supreme Court against all such parties who are involved in acts of terror and have criminals in their ranks. The Supreme Court had included a joint investigation report (JID) of the security agencies in its Thursdays verdict of Karachi unrest case. The JID report named the PPP along with its allies MQM and ANP, among others, who are involved in extortion in Karachi. The report also said that the political parties maintain militant wings which were carrying out violence in the city. Continuing with his criticism of the government, the PML-N chief said that the rulers were not interested in solving problems of the masses and were wasting national resources, which were meant to be spent on peoples welfare. He said that the corrupt are still occupying key posts despite plundering the people. During his visit to the shrine of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Nawaz call upon the youth of the country to support him in bringing a revolution so people could get justice. Without revolution how will we stop injustice, he questioned. He said the government should go now because the PPP has been associated with extortionists. Earlier, addressing a large gathering of flood affectees in Daulatpur, the PML-N president said only a revolution will change the lives of the people, especially youth of the country and a new Pakistan will emerge. He said Pakistan is not a poor country but it has been made so by the PPP government through corrupt practices. He lashed out at the government for its failure to meet the needs of the marooned people. He questioned as to why the prime minister was not spending Rs29 billion which were lying as discretionary grant. He demanded that every family whose house has been damaged in rains and flood must be paid one lakh rupees. The PML-N chief said he had come from Punjab to help the Sindhi brethren get their rights. Over 600 trucks with relief goods had already reached from Punjab and 20 trucks with essential supplies provided by the Punjab government were reaching the affected areas daily, he added. He wondered that while most of the present rulers in Pakistan belonged to Sindh but they did not pay any attention to resolve problems of the people of the province. He said that so many people have drowned in floods but no one was worried about them. When asked about all-party conference (APC), the PML-N leader said that the Pakistans foreign policy needs to be synchronised with the national interests while the internal and foreign policies need to be amended. Our Staff Reporter adds from Multan: Talking to the journalists during his brief stay at Multan Airport while on way to Lahore from Nawab Shah, Nawaz Sharif urged the members of parliament to play their role for imposition of ban on political parties with armed wings. The former prime minister said that it was unfortunate that even the ruling party PPP also had an armed wing in Karachi. Now the time has come that the parliamentarians carry out legislation for getting political parties with armed wings banned, he added. Answering a question on his partys stance on Saraiki province, Nawaz said that it was N-League that advanced the proposal of creation of new units in the country. But setting up any province on lingual grounds will create anarchy in the country, he added. He said that ethnic politics ruined the city of Karachi and therefore the country could not afford this kind of politics anymore. To another query, he said that it was incumbent Punjab government that allocated record funds for South Punjab in the history of this province. He said that his party was not opposed to new provinces, but this issue should be settled through political harmony. New provinces should be set up on administrative grounds. It will also put the country on path of progress, he opined. Referring to the condition of flood victims in Sindh, he regretted that the rulers were doing politics on flood while sitting in air-conditioned rooms of Islamabad while on the other hand poor masses were in miserable plight. He said that the only service rendered by the Aiwan-e-Sadar for the flood victims was lip service. Nawaz maintained that the government completely failed on all fronts as problems like hunger, inflation and loadshedding are haunting the masses. To a question on recent Pak-US confrontation, he said that Pakistan should forcefully express its viewpoint before international community. If we fail to present our point of view strongly, the time will slip (from our hands), he opined.

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