NEW DELHI: A Pakistan embassy press release Wednesday described as “utterly baseless” a Washington datelined story claiming that Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had charged Nawaz Sharif led Punjab government with arming and training Sikh freedom fighters.
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has neither met nor given any interview to the author of the article (Manish Thakur), the release said.
The embassy also stated that “no official or any official agency of Pakistan is involved in any manner in the Punjab problem.”
The article by Manish Thakur, an economist with a Hong Kong based bank, was published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The article is itself very critical of Bhutto’s government.
According to the article Bhutto’s government has been characterized by corruption and inaction with the result that Zia is achieving a level of popularity he never enjoyed while alive. His grave has become a pilgrimage point and his picture can be seen on many street comers in the Punjab and northwest frontier.
Thakur quotes one Karachi businessman as complaining,
“Before (under Zia), all the best jobs went to the army officials, and now they all go to Benazir’s yesmen and their families. Nothing has changed.
In Bhutto’s home province of Sind, says the article, “Ethnic tensions have caused riots between Muslim immigrants from India on the one hand and pathans from northwest frontier province and ethnic Sindhis on the other.”
At any given time, says Thakur, at least some of Karachi is under curfew; suburbs periodically become no-go areas in ethnic turf battles.
The threat of a military coup, “remains very real” according to Thakur who attributes many of Bhutto’s troubles to her advisers, “many of them corrupt yesmen.”
Article extracted from this publication >> January 26, 1990
