Karachi: Senior provincial minister Nisar Khuhro on Friday condemned the arrests of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders and warned of grave consequences if attempts to topple his government continue.
In a statement, Khuhro, who is also the Sindh province information minister, said that “some forces did not desire that the PPP government in this province may continue anymore”. He added that if the history of uprooting the PPP government was repeated, it would end with the bad consequences.
The minister said that his party does not support corruption, that’s an incorrect perception.
“Once cast their [accusers’] glance around, then those who are giving such impression would realise that the others are not the angels also,” he said.
Defending his government, Khuhro said that actions against corruption must also be taken in the other provinces of the country.
He added that federal agencies were encroaching in the affairs of provincial anticorruption institutions and autonomy.
Khuhro also suggested that it was a test for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and wondered if his government would lay its hands on ‘his brother’s government’ in the Punjab province.
The provincial minister’s statement came following the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain, a former petroleum minister and a close aide to former president Asif Ali Zardari.
Hussain was handed over to the paramilitary Rangers for 90 days of interrogation regarding charges of money laundering, land grabbing and other financial charges that had been laid against him.
Besides, a Pakistani anticorruption court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and one of his senior ministers over a dozen graft cases against them.
The court ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which investigated the cases, to apprehend Gilani, who was prime minister from 2008 to 2012, along with ex-commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim and produce them before a judge on September 10.
They stand accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes while in power.
Both Gilani and Fahim are senior leaders of the opposition, the PPP, that says the cases against them are an attempt to stifle the party and gag Zardari, who has been critical of the outsize-role of the country’s powerful army.
The PPP ruled from 2008-13, but suffered a defeat in the general elections that led to the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
Zardari, who is currently living in Dubai, in a statement told his party leaders to protest against the arrests of the ex-minister, while observing that the PPP was being pushed towards a wall.
Meanwhile, major-general Bilal Akbar, the director-general of the Sindh Rangers, called on chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to exchange views over the targeted operation against the criminals.
