Zardari lodges protest with Shujaat

Tahir Hasan Khan
KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari has lodged a protest with PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain over the visit of a Q-league delegation to the Al-Murtaza House in Larkana.

A PML-Q delegation recently visited the Al-Murtaza House before visiting Ghari Khuda Bukhsh and offered its condolence to PPP-SB chief Ghinwa Bhutto. Zardari personally conveyed his displeasure to Chaudhry Shujaat over the issue during the Saudi Arabia visit where they both went to attend the funeral of Saudi crown prince.

Disclosing this, the sources said Interior Minister Rehman Malik conveyed this message to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat first and later, the president himself lodged his protest with the PML-Q chief during their Saudi visit.

Shujaat faced embarrassment when Zardari told him that a delegation of the Q-league, headed by the partyís Sindh chief Ghaus Bux Maher and Central Secretary General Mushahid Hussain, visited the residence of Ghinwa Bhutto to offer condolence over the death of Nusrat Bhutto.

The president, the sources said, told Shujaat that this move by the Q-league leaders was against the interests of the PPP and his family and will also damage the relations between the two parties. The visit stirred a controversy in the media and raised a question mark over who are the real heirs of Begum Bhutto, the mother of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Shujaat and Pervez Illahi have taken serious notice over the move by some party leaders and called for an explanation from them.

The Chaudhrys have initiated an inquiry as to who was actually responsible for this mistake.

The PML-Q chief told the president that the killer of his father had confessed in the court that he killed Chaudhry Zahoor Illahi on the instructions of Murtaza Bhutto and the visit to the Al-Murtaza House by his party leaders was also a conspiracy against him and it was a clear violation of the partyís discipline and policy, and action must be taken against those responsible.

Shujaat, insiders claimed, informed President Zardari that he was awaiting the return of his of his partyís secretary general, Mushahid Hussain, who was out of the country, and his return he will take action against those responsible for the act.

The sources said there is a dispute between the provincial Q-league leaders over the issue of real heirs of late Begum Bhutto as one group reached Naudero while another, led by Sindh PML-Q Ghous Bux Mehar, went to Al-Murtaza Housr for offering their condolences.