KARACHI, May 20, 2023: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has demanded the elements involved in the violent protests that took place on May 9 — following the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan — be taken to task.
The demand was made on Friday during a meeting of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP’s) Central Executive Committee (CEC) at the Bilawal House.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and former president Asif Ali Zardari jointly chaired the meeting, in which May 9 was termed a “black day in the history of Pakistan”.
Briefing media persons after the CEC meeting, PPP leader and Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said that the law should come into force to take the due punitive action against the miscreants involved in arson attacks and violence that day.
She said PTI leaders had given orders to perpetrate acts of violence and commit arson attacks in the country following Khan’s arrest and later refused to accept responsibility for the troubled situation that evolved in the country.
PTI leaders are masters of taking U-turns in politics, she said.
Rehman added that the violent incidents of May 9 were unprecedented in Pakistan’s history, adding that PPP followers had never resorted to such violent acts despite facing enormous hard times.
She noted that such a reaction hadn’t been shown by workers of her party even after the martyrdom of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
She recalled that former president Zardari had always raised the slogan in favour of the unity and cohesion of Pakistan whenever the country faced hard times.
Rehman also criticised the method of politics of PTI, stating that the PTI leadership had always cared for their own political survival instead of caring about Pakistan’s integrity.
The PPP leader said the PTI had crossed “red lines” in the country’s politics.
Taking to Twitter, Bilawal in no unclear terms condemned the “May 9 carnage” and shared his party’s concerns about the ongoing digital census.
“The PPP CEC met today unequivocally condemn the May 9 carnage wreaked by PTI mobs in many parts of the country; to call attention to growing concerns on the census process, and to the economic challenges faced by the public.”
During the briefing, Rehman also added that participants of the meeting had reposed full confidence in Bilawal and Zardari’s leadership.
‘Uniform standards’
Moreover, the meeting rejected the ongoing process of the digital census in the country while demanding that uniform standards should be adopted for the enumeration of the population all over the country.
The CEC meeting took notice of the situation that the census process was still continuing in some areas, while the enumeration exercise had been concluded in other parts of the country.