Pakistan: Bilawal tweets “Never to look to umpire’s finger”

Pakistan People’s Party leader, Bilawal Bhuto Zardari, says he will never ever indulge in politics that takes cues from ‘umpire’s finger’, an allusion to Pakistan’s powerful army’s collusion with political parties, which Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan talks a lot about.

“Proud 2b (to be) grandson of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali bhutto & son of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. (I) will never do politics on the instructions of umpires finger”, Bilawal said in a tweet posted on his Twitter handle Friday.

Bilawal’s tweet is a taunt on Khan’s pet rhetoric that very soon umpire’s finger will go up, a gesture suggesting a batsman is out. Meanwhile, efforts are underway to end the political crisis rocking the country, but a stalemate over demands for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation dragged on.

The fresh talks came after days of clashes between police and club-wielding anti-government protesters left three dead and hundreds injured, raising fears of an intervention by the powerful military that has ruled Pakistan for more than half its history.

Government negotiators met briefly with members of the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) party of cricketing legend Imran Khan — who has been leading the protests along with populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri — but they left without addressing the media.

Separate negotiations between Qadri and a cross-party team of opposition lawmakers were ongoing late Wednesday.

Both Khan and Qadri claim that the 2013 general election which swept Sharif to power was heavily rigged. Thousands of their followers have set up camp in Islamabad’s sensitive “Red Zone” government district since August 15.

But their calls to overthrow the government have failed to galvanise mass support in the country of 180 million.

Qadri, meanwhile, told his supporters to leave the area in front of parliament where protesters have been camped out for two weeks — leaving it strewn with rubbish and human waste — and to occupy the roads instead. “We won’t leave the place till we change the system,” Qadri said.