Major parties fuelling sectarianism

LAHORE, March 4: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Monday support to terror outfits by major political parties busy making seat adjustments with organisations like Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has added to the menace of terrorism in Pakistan. He said both ruling parties – the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – were involved in providing refuge to the terrorists of banned outfits and making seat-adjustments with banned outfits just to attain power. Both parties were least bothered about the masses’ miseries. Mr Khan said this while talking to reporters after visiting the family of former Shaukat Khanum Hospital consultant Dr Ali Haider, who was recently killed in alleged target killing in Lahore last month. He called Dr Haider’s killing a national tragedy, adding that the country had been deprived of internationally recognized eye specialist. The PTI chief said the Sunni-Shia conflict had an international dimension but the real cause was incompetence of governments. Once in power, he said, the PTI would eradicate terrorism from Pakistan. The PTI chairman said the government did nothing to eradicate the militancy and extremism in the past five years from the country. The ongoing killing spree due to the Shia-Sunni conflict was part of an internal conspiracy, he alleged. He advised Karachites to not vote those political parties that had armed wings. The PTI chief said that his party, if voted to power, would take the country out of US-led war on terrorism and initiate dialogue with Taliban, besides banning foreign funding for the terrorist groups. Mr Khan said the incumbent governments had completely failed to deal with the militancy and restoring peace in the country. But, he said, the PTI would deal with sectarianism, militancy and extremism, which other parties failed to do despite being in power for several times. He said the PTI had been supporting dialogue with Taliban since long, but other parties were mocking it and even the move was called a conspiracy by Jews and Christians. However, he said, it was quite surprising that all these parties were now backing the PTI’s suggestion of dialogue. “The JUI-F and ANP should tell the nation that why did they not convene the APC five years back despite being a part of the government, as they have convened the conference when the government is about to complete its five-year tenure,” he argued.He called the Metro Bus Service, laptop and solar lamps schemes as a part of pre-poll rigging, the PTI chief said the Punjab government could not fool the masses by launching these initiatives with public money because they had been exposed before the masses and the people had already made their mind to vote for the PTI.–Dawn]]>