Karachi - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh Coordination Committee chief Nisar Khohru, also Minister for Food, on Saturday refused to call MQM chief Altaf Hussain a traitor.

This has come soon after Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday had said that he had never called Altaf Hussain a traitor.

Addressing a press conference at his office in Sindh Assembly, when was asked that whether he considered a person speaking against the country a traitor, the minister said that the provincial government had asked the federal government to take action against Altaf under Article 6. “But no action has been taken in this regard so far,” he added.

When asked regarding anti-Pakistan statements of Mahmood Khan Achakzai, he said that he had said that no one could be forced to raise any slogans.

He further said that the slain PPP chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, despite open threats from former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf, had not been intimidated and returned to Pakistan on Oct 18, 2007.

He said Benazir was a brave leader. “Any other leader could have succumbed to those threats and cancelled return to Pakistan, but BB was different from others,” he added.

“She decided to end her 9-year long self-imposed exile and return to Pakistan because she wanted to address the frustration and despondency of the youth and bring changes in their lives by opening up new venues of prosperity for them,” he said, and added, “On her return, millions of people had assembled to welcome their beloved leader. The majority was of the youth that had come out of their homes from across the country.”

Khohru said that Musharraf executed his plans for sabotage and engineered explosions to target Benazir.

“She narrowly escaped multiple blasts,” he said.

He also held a meeting with elected local government representatives, UC chairmen and vice chairmen, to review the preparations for a rally to be brought out under the leadership of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in memory of Karsaz tragedy on October 16.

The rally would start from Bilawal House and would end at Shuhda-e Karsaz Monument at Karsaz where Bilawal would address the participants.

The UC chairmen and vice chairmen on the occasion assured Khohru that they would work hard day and night to make the rally a historic event and would bring out smaller rallies from every union council to merge into the main rally.