LAHORE: PPP South Punjab president and former governor, Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood, has chided the government for what he says its political vendetta and poor political and economic policies.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said fascism is gaining ground in the name of democracy. Alleging partial accountability, he lamented that state institutions have become slave to one person in the country and are targeting rivals of the rulers.

He said the state institutions must operate within constitutional framework as ‘extra-constitutional’ and ‘illegal’ acts are not in the interest of the country.

He said the establishment cannot absolve itself of the current instability in the country.

Opposing the government’s reported decision of amending the speaker’s powers for issuing production orders for the parliamentarians in custody of law-enforcers for any reason, he said it would be an insult of the Parliament to try to stop its members from attending its proceedings.

It is bad luck of the country and the nation that the government is in the control of an “incompetent selected group” which wants to defame every politician, he said.

Meanwhile, PPP Federal Council member Abdul Qadir Shaheen says “the incompetents” have no roadmap to steer the country out of the economic mayhem it is in these days.

There is no other way but to take to the streets against the government which, he says, is ruining all its institutions and whose policies are leading to unprecedented price hike in the country to the disadvantage of the poor.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2020