KARACHI: Opposition leader in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah claimed on Friday that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had “saved democracy” in 2014 when former president Asif Ali Zardari convinced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to resign at the time the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) turned up the political heat with its dharna. The PTI’s 126-day-long sit-in in Islamabad had called for the resignation of the prime minister amid allegations that the 2013 general election was rigged. “Nawaz Sharif was going to resign. We [the PPP] stopped him. We said, ‘This is parliament’s war’,” Shah claimed while talking to the media.”Asif Zardari went to Raiwind and showed the world that he had accepted Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister,” he added. When asked about Sindh governor and PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair’s statements attributing responsibility for peace in Karachi to the premier, Shah said Nawaz had no role to play in Karachi’s ‘improved’ security situation. “Gen Raheel, the army and the provincial government have an understanding,” he said. “Nawaz Sharif is not involved in this.” The opposition leader went on to criticise the federal government for attempting to block the Sindh government’s move to remove Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja.
“Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provincial government has the right to make decisions that it deemed fit,” Shah said. He said that the Sindh government did not have an “understanding” with the IG and the decision of his removal was made to improve the situation of law and order in the province. “By putting blockages in the provincial government’s way, the federal government is playing a dangerous game,” he said, adding that if the move was blocked, the PPP would have to consider its next step.
“As leader of the opposition, I have the position to fight within and outside parliament for democracy.” Shah’s statements come at a time the PPP appears to have begun campaigning for the upcoming general election. With PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari focusing his attention on reorganising the party in Punjab and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari rallying in Balochistan, the party seems to be on the offensive as it looks to ramp up support for itself outside its stronghold in Sindh.
