KARACHI: Former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has demanded that the army investigate the Karsaz bomb attack on the homecoming procession of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Oct 18, 2007 as well as her assassination near Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007.

He made this demand while speaking at a press conference along with another former chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi and MPA Ijaz Ali Shah Shirazi, following the Sindh Assembly session, at the main entrance of the Sindh Assembly building on Monday.

Responding to a question, he said if the assassination of Ms Bhutto was investigated through Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and the case was tried in a military court, then facts about both cases would be unearthed.

“An investigation by the army was all the more necessary because the Pakistan Peoples Party has been blackmailing a number of people including Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Naheed Khan with reference to Ms Bhutto’s assassination.”

He said he was calling for an investigation by the army because Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon had earlier spoken about initiating an investigation against him regarding the Karsaz bomb blast and therefore it was necessary to get both incidents investigated by the army so that people knew who actually benefited the most from Ms Bhutto’s assassination.

He also mentioned The Scotland Yard’s inquiry into the assassination of Ms Bhutto, saying that it, too, failed to find a clue. “We want the real killers of Ms Bhutto to be identified.”

Mr Jatoi, in reply to a question, accused the PPP government for pursuing anti-Sindh policies “for the past seven years as the party has been running the affairs at gunpoint”.

He said he had submitted a privilege motion against the agriculture minister regarding the sugar cane price but his motion was not being taken up nor was he being allowed to speak in the House to raise pressing issues of the common people.

He said sugar cane was not the only issue as there were many more issues such as fixing of the rice price and occupation of hundreds of acres of land belonging to the Liaquat Medical University and a power plant in Jamshoro that had been handed over to builders.

He said people sitting in the government had no idea of the unrest and anger of people towards them. “Whenever government leaders emerge out of their protocol and security squads, they will have to face the wrath of the public. They will be dragged on the road by the people.”

Mr Shirazi said that party people belonging to the ruling PPP had taken over more than 350,000 acres of forest land in Thatta and Sujawal through fake documents. When asked who was the beneficiary, he replied: “The most influential person of the Sindh government. I am talking only of the land in Thatta and Sujawal and not of the land that has been occupied in Nawabshah, Sanghar, Dadu and other districts.”

In reply to another question, he said the salaries of those government functionaries were stopped who had voted for the Shirazis in the 2013 elections.

He said in both districts many government schools had been closed. He also claimed that the reverse osmosis plants installed in Thar recently had become non-functional, even the RO plant in Mithi, said to be the largest plant in Asia, had also started leaking.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2015

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