Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari endorses demand for formation of judicial commission to probe May 9 riots

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday endorsed the call of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party for the formation of a judicial commission to probe the May 9 riots if it will accept the decision of the panel, according to a media report.

Unprecedented violent protests erupted following the arrest of Khan in a corruption case on May 9 last year.

The 71-year-old Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder is currently incarcerated at Rawalpindi's high-security Adiala jail in multiple cases.

On May 9 last year, Khan's PTI party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Jinnah House (Lahore Corps Commander house), Mianwali air base, the ISI building in Faisalabad, and the Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.

In a speech in the newly-constituted National Assembly, Bilawal, the former foreign minister endorsed the demand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and requested the PM-elect, Shehbaz Sharif, to plead to Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa to constitute an investigation commission headed by the top judge himself to probe the May 9 incidents.

Bilawal said he endorses this “if the PTI assures us that it will accept the decision of the judicial commission”, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“It is not possible that someone attacks our institutions, the martyr’s memorials and we forget it,” he added. “We cannot take our politics forward unless we address this issue and this is the reason why the PPP appeals to the PM to form a judicial commission […] Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa should form the commission,” Bilawal said.

The PPP chairman also extended his party’s support to the matter of the PTI wanting to address any election irregularities.

The 35-year-old, in his speech, said the February 8 elections are being “made controversial for no reason” by incidents like a raid on a presidential candidate’s residence.

Ahead of the presidential polls in Pakistan, authorities in Balochistan have raided the house of opposition presidential candidate and veteran politician Mahmood Khan Achakzai in the provincial capital, Quetta, and reclaimed a piece of government-owned land “illegally occupied” by him.

Achakzai, 75, from Balochistan, is the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief and was nominated by Imran Khan to contest against former president Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal's father.

Authorities in Quetta said they had conducted the raid at Achakzai's residence on Sunday and reclaimed a piece of government-owned land “illegally occupied” by him.

The veteran politician will contest the March 9 presidential candidate against 68-year-old senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari whose name has been floated by the coalition government headed by Shehbaz Sharif.