ISLAMABAD: Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Sunday demanded an immediate reconstitution of the caretaker government which she charged was being run by a bunch of “black mailers, crooks,” and two suspected “Indian agents.”

Addressing her second press conference here after her ouster on August 6, Bhutto urged President Ghulam Ishaq Khan to undo his “big colossal blunder” by appointing the speakers of the defunct national assembly and provincial assemblies to head the federal and provincial administration to ensure free, fair and impartial elections on October 24.

During her hour long chat with reporters at a PPP leaders, residence here, Bhutto described the unceremonious sacking of her government as illegal, levelled a series of allegations against Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and other Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) leaders and listed her governments’ achievements in the last 20 months.

Bhutto claimed that she had not taken in her cabinet federal minister for water and power, Ghulam Mustafa Khar and Sindh chief minister, Jam Sadiq Ali since suspicions were raised about their being “Indian agents.”

Khar former Punjab chief minister and Ali, both disgruntled senior PPP leaders, have been expelled from the party after they had joined the Jatoi cabinet.

The 37 year old sacked premier attributed her government’s dismissal to a “premeditated” conspiracy hatched in June 1989. She said a senator, after meeting president Ishaq Khan, had stated that grounds were being prepared to dissolve the national assembly and remove the democratically elected government on fabricated corruption and other charges.

She said there was no justification in the presidential decree which was nothing but a mockery of the entire democratic process.

Bhutto said in two years, two prime ministers had been sent packing, on five occasions in the past, prime ministers had been dismissed on similar grounds of corruption and lawlessness.

Certain elements wanted to ensure that democracy did not take roots in the country, Bhutto stated.

She rejected the idea mooted by army chief, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg of holding elections every six months. “Such a move will be tragic,” she said.

Bhutto, however, refused to comment on other remarks made by Gen Beg recently, “I do not wish to comment on the armed forces at a time when there is tension on our borders.”

Gen Beg had justified the president’s action, rebutted Bhutto’s allegation that the military intelligence was behind her ouster and claimed that the army had no political designs.

Bhutto said government servants and businessmen had been arrested on charges of corruption which had not yet been substantiated and for which not even a single case had been filed in any court so far.

She said the interim government had failed in its attempt to allure a person by offering him Rs ten million to tum “approver” against her husband, Asif Ali Zardarni.

 Now Jatoi and other leaders had asked the concerned agencies to frame charges against her and her family to seek her disqualification in the forthcoming elections.

Rebuking the accountability process of the interim government, Bhutto asked her successor, to first explain the “dubious means,” adopted by him to give plots to his relatives.

She said Gen Zia Ul Haq’s son Ijaz Ul Haq had five houses in Islamabad while former Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo had managed to get a loan at an interest rate of three percent to set up a sugar mill. Former Punjab Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif and ji leader and federal minister, Chaudhury Shujaat Hussain and loans against them written off.

In the last 20 months, PPP had been walking a tightrope and several attempts had been made to shake it,” but we kept our balance,” she added.

Referring to the Kashmir issue, Bhutto reiterated that her government had revived the “dead issue.” We managed to play the Kashmir question in such a manner that we averted a conflict and focused attention on the Kashmir people’s right to self-determination, she said.

Replying to a question, she said “dishonesty is manifest in picking up march rival (Jatoi) and telling him to do what he wants,” Jatoi she said, had lost in two constituencies in his home area and had no business in being appointed to his present office.

The sole aim of this “discredited lot of opportunists” was to keep PPP out of power by “hook or by crook,” she said.

Bhutto said she had also received reports that the government had called for Zia’s laws on summary courts for disqualification of candidates contesting elections with a clear eye to debar her.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 31, 1990