Lahore, Oct 24 : Veteran Pakistani politicians belonging to different parties have expressed serious concern over the ‘dirty politics’ initiated by the PPP and the PML-Q leadership in the aftermath of the October 18 Karachi blasts.
They feel it would negatively impact country’s political culture already marred by politics of revenge and intolerance.
Senior PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq said that it was unfortunate to see the two parties indulging in a blame game over an issue, which was still under investigation.
He blamed successive military dictators for spoiling country’s political environment, sometimes directly jumping into the politics and at times supporting one political group or the other to serve their vested interests.
Haq maintained that idea of developing a true democratic culture was hard to be materialised as along as the country continues to be governed by the military dictators.
PML-N leader opined that it was hard for Musharraf to keep together the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, with whom he has eight years long association, and his new partner, Benazir Bhutto for obvious reasons.
"If Musharraf gives some political space to Bhutto, it is not received well in the other camp where it is perceived as big political loss," he observed.
Senior PPP leader and former foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali said the eruption of post-blast hostilities would negatively impact the political future of Pakistan.
According to him, the Karachi blast and its after effects had the potential to change country’s political scene in a big way.
He, however, blamed the PML-Q leadership of indulging in blame game instead of waiting for completion of the inquiry.
Former Finance and Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz termed the mudslinging between the PPP and the PML-Q as a bad omen for country’s politics, especially at a time when general elections were just around the corner and political parties were gearing up for the election campaign.
Condemning the continuing blame game between the two parties, he said old political rivalry was at the back of it.
The Chaudharys, Aziz said, were perturbed over Benazir’s presence in the country because they feared erosion of their political space gained in the last eight years.
Former federal minister Ishaq Khaqwani, who recently resigned from the cabinet, came down hard on the Chaudhrys of Gujrat for maligning the PPP leadership over the Karachi blasts.
He said the PPP had suffered a colossal loss as a result of that unfortunate happening and was the only party to be at the receiving end.
Ridiculing the statement of Shujaat that Benazir herself planned the blast, Khaqwani said it was hard to believe that she would think of self-annihilation through such an act.
He said only a naive would believe what Shujaat had said.
Senior PPP leader Altaf Qureshi said irresponsible statements by PML-Q leaders would further aggravate the hostilities between the two parties with the result that undemocratic forces would get further strengthened taking advantage of the unstable political situation.
It would also give a severe blow to the process of national reconciliation started by the present regime, The Nation quoted Qureshi, as saying. (ANI)