Edgy Pakistan declares day of mourning

mastung (pakistan) — Pakistan declared a day of national mourning today after suicide blasts killed nearly 150 people, shaking confidence in security just as the dramatic arrest of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif ratcheted political tensions higher ahead of nationwide polls.

The national flag will fly at half mast to mourn the deaths in Friday’s twin attacks in Bannu district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and in Balochistan’s Mastung district that claimed the life of Siraj Raisani, a candidate of the Balochistan Awami Party.

After scraping its planned rallies in Peshawar and Malakand due to mounting security threats and in solidarity with the victims of the carnage, Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday suspended his party’s political activities all over the country, reported.

With Bilawal in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on a two-day visit, the PPP had planned to stage public gatherings in Peshawar, but KP’s district administration refused to grant the party permission to go ahead with its planned events, and advised Bilawal to remain within cantonment areas.

Bilawal then suspended his political activities, although he said he would still go to his constituencies and meet his party’s local leadership. Bilawal said the caretaker government installed ahead of the vote was not giving his party a “level playing field” in the campaign. “The press is facing censorship, political activists are being detained, and this is not only a violation of human rights but also pre-poll rigging,” he told a press conference in Peshawar.

Mushahidullah Khan, a spokesman for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party, said the ex-prime minister and his daughter were being held in Adiala Jail, located outside the capital of Islamabad.

Khan said Sharif will appeal his conviction and apply for bail before the deadline expires on Monday. He still faces two additional corruption trials, both of which will be held inside the jail, said Khan. —