Shujaat admits PML government mistakes

Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Chairman Shujaat Hussain on Saturday acknowledged that the judicial crisis, Lal Masjid debacle, Akbar Bugti’s killing and energy crisis were the mistakes of his party-led government.

Addressing a press conference here at the party’s office along with Secretary General Mushahid Hussain, Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim and others, he vowed that, in future, his party would not repeat the past mistakes. He also termed the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif a huge mistake committed by the PML (Q)-led government, and said that they had no political agenda other than doing politics out of the existing issues.

He alleged that the opposition political parties were raising the issues of the country’s safe nuclear programme, while nobody could dare to act against it. He said that he had a meeting with the Chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain in London, which was aimed to chalk out a joint strategy for averting the attempts of rigging in election.

He said he had urged Altaf for peaceful participation in election in Karachi and Hyderabad. He said that Arbab Rahim would again be Sindh Chief Minister in case Q-League emerged victorious in the forthcoming general elections scheduled for February 18.

About the controversial advertisement published in newspapers, Shujaat said his party had already sought an apology and it was a mistake. He said that some people, who were involved in pre-poll rigging, were accusing Q-League of it.

He dispelled the impression about rift between Shaukat Aziz and Pervaiz Elahi. On Kalabagh dam, he said that it had become a faded issue and had no place in PML’s political manifesto.

He said that there was no concept of ‘by birth’ chairmanship in his party and, rather, a democratic process determined the fate of party leadership. Mushahid said his London visit was aimed to dispel the wrong impression and propaganda on foreign visits of Pakistanis, not only the relatives of Shujaat. He added that the British government had sought formal apology from Shujaat.

Rahim said that PML-Q would appear as one-to-one competitor of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh, while MQM would face the opposition parties in Karachi in the elections. He demanded reopening of the investigation of the attack on judiciary during Nawaz Sharif’s government. He warned Asif Ali Zardari against the politics of threats, expressing possibility of a backlash.