Former president Asif Ali Zardari does not favour Law Minister Zahid Hamid’s resignation over Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah protesters’ demand, close aides said.
A senior Pakistan People’s Party leader who met Zardari on Sunday told The Nation that the PPP co-chairman believed the government had “mishandled” the Islamabad sit-in but Hamid’s resignation would still set a wrong precedent.
“If Zahid Hamid resigns, anyone could stage a demonstration and seek the prime minister’s resignation or sacking of any official. This will jolt the system,” the PPP leader added, quoting Zardari .
Zahid Hamid told Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that he was ready to resign if it could end the prolonged sit-in by the TLYR.
However, the PM has so far asked the minister to continue his job.
Earlier, dozens of protesters attacked Hamid’s residence.
They threw stones at the house and broke windowpanes.
The protesters, who have braved a security forces’ operation during their three weeks’ sit-in, are demanding Hamid resignation for his alleged role in amending the clause in the constitution relating to the finality of the Prophethood.
The parliament has since passed The Elections (Amendment) Bill 2017 and restored the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat (finality of the Prophethood) clause in its original form.
Another PPP leader said Zardari and party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari agree that any resignation should come after the responsibility had been fixed.
“If the law minister is responsible, he must resign but not on the demand of the protesters,” he said, quoting the PPP leadership.
Last night, an important meeting of the PPP leadership was held in Karachi.
The meeting was attended by Zardari , Bilawal, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, and Senator Sherry Rehman.
“The meeting took stock of the situation in threadbare and pledged to support and stand by democracy and democratic institutions asking the government to fulfil its constitutional obligations,” said a PPP statement.
Zardari’s spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said the government’s operation against the protesters and its mishandling of the situation would be discussed in the parliament.
“The opposition parties will definitely raise this issue in the parliament. The government failed in handling the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, PPP Senator Rehman Malik condemned the government’s decision of taking all news channels off air. In a statement, he said the decision had seriously dented the freedom of media and would certainly provide a space to the propagandists to spread false information among the masses to make the situation further uncertain.
Malik said as chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior, he had taken serious notice of Faizabad sit-in and had summoned the interior ministry and Islamabad administration during a session of the committee on November 17 with directions to defuse the current impasse amicably before it spreads across the country.
The former interior minister said the siege of Islamabad had symbolised the siege of whole country as Islamabad being the capital of Pakistan had been held hostage and the government looked helpless. He said Islamabad had been turned into a remote village and the government itself was held hostage and looked paralysed.
The failure of operation to break up sit-in at Islamabad’s Faizabad Interchange, Malik said, had disturbed the nation regarding the safety of the whole country as Pakistan was already the prime target of the terrorists, India and other anti-Pak forces. Malik said the government should have taken the parliament into confidence and had announced an empowered committee of parliamentarians from all parties to help the government in resolving the situation with collective national efforts and response. The PPP leader said all the organs of the government did not seem to be on one page to handle the issue with requisite professional approach and response. “Why the report of Raja Zafarul Haq is not being made public, which can clear the ambiguity and helps in settling this issue,” he questioned. The PPP leader said the protesters had taken a very sensitive issue hence the government should announce immediately a panel of Islamic scholars from all sects, parliamentarians from all political parties and presidents of all bars to approach the protesters for a meaningful dialogue to convince the leadership of protesters to end the sit-in peacefully.
“The government should improve its poor handling and also take additional law enforcement from the Punjab and Azad Kashmir. Frontier constabulary is not a trained force for anti-riots but it is a border management force hence the federal government should move with properly trained anti-riots force to act with minimum damage and to get maximum output in terms of effective law enforcement,” he maintained. Malik demanded a joint session of the parliament to discuss the current deadlock and to propose a common strategy to resolve the issue without any further delay.
“More effective and well strategised administrative-measures should be taken to implement the orders of the Supreme Court as the court may pass some adverse orders against the government for non-compliance,” he added. The lawmaker said the government had to refrain from violence as it would further deteriorate the situation and use the best option, which was effective use of dialogue through skilful and dedicated negotiators. “The government should ensure to restore at least half of Islamabad roads at any cost with the help of Punjab and Islamabad police. Continuously blocked Islamabad is not in national interest,” he said.
Malik said Prime Minister Abbasi should directly contact the leaders of the Faizabad sit-in and take them into confidence and settle the issue with some assurances to get the matter resolved.
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