Bhutto didn't murder Khawaja Rafique, Lahore PPP did: Javed Hashmi
It was a political rally by all parties; rally was attacked four times, Saad Rafique's father died
LAHORE: (Dunya News, Web Desk) – Senior political leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Wednesday said that Khawaja Rafique Shaheed, father of Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, was murdered by the Lahore chapter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), reported Dunya News.
Talking to Kamran Shahid on Dunya TV program On the Front, Javed Hashmi said that he was with Khawaja Rafique in the rally when he was killed.
“It was a political rally by all the parties. It had been called by Khawaja Rafique Shaheed and Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan. The rally was attacked at Temple Road, Lahore, near Mall Road, by PPP workers. It’s not that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had ordered the attacks, but Lahore PPP attacked the rally four times and finally resulted in deaths of several people”
Hashmi said that those workers were prominent people from Lahore PPP. “Those who didn’t see the scenes could believe that it was a roadside murder but fact is that those who knew things knew the people were from PPP and they had wronged him that day”, he said.
“It’s a pointless debate now. If you bring these things to the fore again and again, things would be blown out of proportion. However, it was a murder in a rally”.
He was responding to PPP leader Shehla Raza’s claim on the same show that Khawaja Rafique was just killed on the road and had nothing to do with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or PPP.
During the show, Hashmi also said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto couldn’t alone be blamed for the fall of Dhaka. He said that the attitudes of the people living in this part of Pakistan forced the people of Bengal to demand a separate homeland.
“Bhutto is blamed for it because PPP was the beneficiary of what transpired afterwards. PPP had only one-third of the total seats. They didn’t have the majority. According to the constitution, a re-election should have been held after the fall of Dhaka but the power was transferred to PPP. So the party that benefited the most from the situation was blamed by the people, the books and the history”.
“As far as I am concerned, it wasn’t Bhutto alone or anyone alone. It was our collective failure in keeping the two wings of Pakistan together”, Hashmi said.
