Pakistan: PPP asks CM Punjab to step down

http://www.ppp.org.pk/

The Pakistan Peoples Party has asked Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to step down if an FIR of the Model Town killings is registered against him on a court order.

“An FIR of the murder of 14 innocent people should have been registered soon after the incident, the aggrieved families want justice and to ensure a fair probe into the incident, the chief minister should immediately step down as long as he isn’t cleared by court,” said PPP Secretary General Latif Khan Khosa while talking to The News.

“The chief minister, not the prime minister, is the chief executive of the province and he stands directly answerable for any incident in his domain,” said Khosa, also a law expert. Khosa said that it was really regretful that 14 persons were killed mercilessly at Model Town and no FIR of the carnage was registered.

He said the major reason behind it was the influence of the PML-N leadership on Punjab police which had been used as a militant wing to victimise political rivals and safeguard members of the Sharif family. Khosa said under Article 5 of the Constitution, loyalty to State is mandatory on every citizen but police was forced to be loyal to the government.

On the other hand, he said, 12,000 policemen are deployed at the residence of the prime minister at Jati Umera, Raiwind, whereas thousands of them were deployed at residences of the Sharif family members. He added the Model Town incident was enough to prove what role was assigned to police by the rulers and no concern was shown to address the grievances of people whose relatives were martyred. He said that Gullu Butt was a glaring example which showed how police was being treated by the Punjab government. “The entire world saw on TV screens how Gullu Butt, a PML-N worker, not a police personnel, participated in the operation at Model Town and the entire force was following him and he was even patted by an official of an SP rank for his actions,” he added.

Later, he said when on public pressure, an FIR was registered against him, bail-able clauses were added to it to provide him relief and eventually he was granted bail by court. Similarly, he said that in Gujranwala where the PTI caravan was attacked, an FIR wasn’t registered against the main accused because he wasn’t only brother of a sitting MPA but also a relative of the Sharif family. Khosa said how could one expect justice from this government when it was influencing police? He said the CM should immediately resign and face charges against him until he was cleared by court.

Shaukat Mehmood Basra, Secretary Information of PPP Southern Punjab, said that there wasn’t any justification for the CM, who was the chief executive of the province to remain in office until he is acquitted by court. He said that for the first time in the history of a government, a brutal incident of Model Town had taken place in which 14 people were eliminated with the help of police.