President Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Central Punjab, Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that the PPP is with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman till this government is sent packing.
Qamar Zaman Kaira said this while addressing the media persons in front of National Press Club where he expressed solidarity with the teachers of Basic Education Community Schools. He was accompanied by Chaudhary Manzoor Hussain, Syed Hassan Murtaza, Nazir Dhoki, Iftikhar Shehzada, Shaista Khosa and Saima Raja.
Kaira said that after the doctors, laborers, teachers and students, the political parties are protesting against this government on the streets. He claimed that the end of this government is certain. He said that it is ironic that a teacher is paid less than a laborer in this country. He said these teachers have not been paid for the last 10 months and PPP demands the payment of their salary at once.
He said that the government has locked down the capital by placing containers alongside every main road. He said that a few protesting teachers have been arrested previous night and demanded their immediate release. He assured legal assistance to the teachers from PPP.
Meanwhile, PPP's Parliamentary Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman claimed that the PTI's intentions to torture political prisoners, who are not even convicted of any crime, are becoming quite apparent. She asserted that former president Zardari is only a suspect but has been incarcerated in poor health for over 3 months for "interrogation which does not seem to finish."
"Instead of worrying about its shocking record of depriving ailing suspects of fundamental healthcare as per law, the government is now keen to pass an amendment in the NAB Ordinance which further removes all sparse facilities to political opponents by putting them in rigorous custody," she said in a statement.
"Former PM Nawaz Sharif is in precarious health and also under interrogation. While their own ministers remain free of NAB custody or jail while under investigation, the screws are being turned on a number of opposition leaders by creating a new set of cruel and unusual instruments of victimization and torture," she added.
"If the PTI thinks it can do what it pleases with impunity while it rides roughshod over all democratic institutions and constitutional provisions, it has a poor reading of history, or the opposition arrayed against it," further added the senator. "The PPP has a long history of concerted resistance to all authoritarian regimes, and Zardari himself has faced 11 years of incarceration without any conviction. Its entire leadership and party cadre is mobilized now to oppose this regime without conceding ground," concluded the parliamentary leader.
Meanwhile, Secretary General Pakistan Peoples Party Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said that Zardari should be allowed to stay at the hospital until completion of his medical treatment.
In a statement, the secretary general PPP said that the party is very concerned regarding its leader President Zardari's health and the authorities should refrain from taking steps that worsen it.
Bukhari said that due to the lack of medical facilities in jail, Zardari's health has faced a rapid decline.
He said that the party office-bearers and workers are advised not to visit the hospital so that the rest of the patients and doctors are not disturbed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019