Karachi (Web Desk): Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to end the "violent" protests that erupted following party chief Imran Khan's arrest two days ago.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the PPP chief termed the protests completely unjustified and advised the PTI "not to make matters worse".
Bilawal said the PPP had never celebrated the arrest of any politician. However, he termed the allegations against Imran as “very serious” and asserted that the former premier had been arrested “in accordance with the law”.
He said that the PTI should have responded to the arrest by hailing Imran as “brave and confident” for facing the accusations. Instead, “PTI had already decided that its reaction would not be political and it would become a militant organisation,” he regretted.
"Apart from the PTI, only the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had attacked the Pakistan Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi," the PPP chief said.
Bilawal said that the onus was on the PTI to decide if they wanted to “remain a political party or not”.
“They have to decide whether they want to do politics or take up an armed resistance against the state,” he added.
Speaking about his party had always been "against" the NAB from the get-go; whereas PTI had always defended the anti-graft body and benefitted from it.
Bilawal also stressed that he was "principally opposed to the banning of any political party", but in the same breath said that "such decisions are made in view of the circumstances".
"If such a decision is taken," he continued, "it would be taken because there would be no other choice left."
"Any organisation would have had to face the music after the terrorist activities carried out yesterday," he furthered.
FM Bilawlal said that all the political stakeholders will have to be work within the ambit of democracy in the larger interest of the country.
Violent protests erupted in Pakistan on Tuesday with dozens injured across several cities and demonstrators attacking military buildings after Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC) by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Al-Qadir Trust case.
The protesters stormed military buildings, ransacked the residence of a top army general in Lahore, and set ablaze state buildings and assets in other places.
