Hooray! But wait and watch as I bet some of the posters on this forum are going to try and defend the rioters and condemn this crackdown on vandals with various reasons. To those people I shall quote the Sindh Home Minister:
***Asked about local PPP leaders facing charges in Sindh, he said: “If a bank was being burnt or a railway engine being set on fire and the person nominated was standing there, how else should we treat him?” ***
I for one am glad that the government is going to be taking action against the PPP’s members for their criminal actions.
Personally, I also feel that the PPP and any of its successor parties should be held financially liable for all the damage inflicted in the riots - the PPP’s funds (including electoral funds) should be confiscated and used to compensate the victims of its riots.
Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party says thousands of its workers are facing rioting and arson charges after violence following her assassination.
Senior party leaders said police had been arresting party members all over Sindh province in recent days.
More than 50 people were killed in the rioting after Ms Bhutto’s death, most of them in her home province of Sindh.
Elections due next week will now be held on 18 February. Officials say they need more time to organise the vote.
The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has avoided going into “agitation mode” so far following the killing of its leader.
Many in the opposition party accuse the authorities of failing to provide Ms Bhutto with adequate security, if not actually being complicit in her murder.
Our correspondent says friction with the government may increase during the election campaign if the administration starts arresting PPP workers in connection with the riots.
The election is seen as a crucial move towards democratic rule under President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally in the US-led “war on terror” who stood down as army chief in November.
He says troops and paramilitary soldiers will help police ensure the vote is “free, fair, transparent and peaceful”.
Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, a senior leader of the PPP in Sindh, said the party had been collating police reports filed since Ms Bhutto’s assassination.
“I can tell you that thousands of PPP workers have been nominated in police reports from every district of Sindh province,” he told the BBC.
Mr Khuhro said that raids had been going on since Sunday.
“By resorting to these tactics in our hour of grief, the government is trying to vitiate the atmosphere.”
He did not have exact figures for the number of PPP activists either arrested, or facing detention.
Earlier on Thursday, top party leader Babar Awan told Dawn News television that about 20,000 party members were facing charges in some 4,000 police reports filed so far.
Sindh home minister Akhtar Zamin could not confirm numbers of suspects facing charges of riot and arson.
He told the BBC the police would be instructed to drop charges against anyone who was innocent.
Asked about local PPP leaders facing charges in Sindh, he said: “If a bank was being burnt or a railway engine being set on fire and the person nominated was standing there, how else should we treat him?”