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Ghinwa favours signing CTBT

RECORDER REPORT

HYDERABAD: PPP (SB) Chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto has said that the stand of her party on Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was as clear as on nuclear explosions.

She said her party opposed nuclear tests. It believed that it was in the best interest of Pakistan and the region that Pakistan should sign on the CTBT.

She was answering newsmen's questions at the residence of the PPP (SB) provincial chief Moula Bux Mashoori here on Sunday where she also presided over the meeting of the Sindh Council of her party.

Ghinwa said that not only Pakistan but the entire region was in the grip of economic, social and financial crises and added that if these crises were not eliminated, the confrontation between different countries of the region could not be ruled out.

She said time was now ripe to herald a true democratic era adding the masses neither wanted the democracy of Nawaz Sharif nor of Benazir Bhutto nor of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.

"We want undiluted peoples' democracy", she asserted. The PPP (SB) chief expressed the hope that the local bodies elections would be held in November this year as announced by the government.

She urged the people to prepare themselves for these elections and added that her party would participate in the elections.

She called upon the people to elect able persons like doctors, lawyers and people from other walks of life for heralding a new and true era of democracy.

"I want to see the empowerment of the people at the grass-roots level", she said.

Ghinwa said that the government's resolve about the devolution of power was a correct step in the right direction and made it clear that she was not prepared to join any alliance of old politicians who had not only failed time and again but also failed the governments.

"I want to see the birth of a new democracy in Pakistan", she said.

Answering a question about the constitution of district governments, she said she was in favour of such governments adding it was not enough as we believed in the empowerment of people at the lowest tier.

She feared that if status quo was maintained it will be the end of the government. In this context, Ghinwa referred to the judgement in the Riba case which, according to her, was tantamount to hijacking public money.

She also referred to the grant of interim bail to the accused in Mir Murtaza Bhutto case and the refusal of judges to take oath under the PCO.

Answering yet another question about the role of judiciary, she said, "I cannot shed tears for them." In this context she referred to the storming of the Supreme Court.

About the refusal of some judges to take oath, she said some had done it as a matter of principle and she respected them but some had their own personal vested interests.

Ghinwa remarked that some of the judges, like some of the opposition leaders, were pushing the country towards martial law.

"May the present government have God's wisdom to save the country from plunging into an Abyss," she prayed.

She severely criticised the bureaucracy which had failed every government again and again and said that the bureaucracy must be exposed.

The PPP (SB) chief urged the government to take popular decisions which were in the best socio-economic interest of the people.

Others present on the occasion included Moula Bux Mashoori, Saleem Saleh Bozdar, Dr. Mazhar Memon, Ms Seema Rafique, Ms Rubina and party spokesman Inayat Hussain Jokhio.