MIRPURKHAS - Senior provincial minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has strongly condemned what he describes as federal government’s excesses against the Sindh province.
Addressing a protest rally outside the local press club here on Thursday, Khukhro said the federal government had stopped power supply, water supply and gas supply to the province. As a result, people of Sindh are suffering, he said. This policy of the federal government is adding to the resentment among the Sindhi people against the federation, he said.
Hundreds of party workers, including women and lawmakers from Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar, attended the protest rally in hot and humid weather.
Khuhro, who is also president of the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), criticised the federal government and said that Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef had been telling lies in the assembly therefore the Supreme Court had declared that he was not Sadiq and Amin (truthful and honest). He said the prime minister was now misleading the people by talking about record progress in the country. He said the Nandipur project had not been made operational until now due to corruption of the government. He said the federal government was usurping water, power and gas resources. Sindhi people are quite aware of the Sharif family and its corruption, he added.
The minister said the Supreme Court had given a “hopeless verdict”, making people take to the street to show their resentment. He said that court proceedings on the JIT reports should be conducted in an open court. He said, “We faced injustices during military ruler Zia-ul-Haq’s rule and sustained bullet injuries. We have made a commitment to the souls of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto that we will rid the country of Nawaz Sharif and his corrupt family.”
He said that “we have been supporting the poor, labourers and peasants from the very beginning and we restored democracy in the country by giving sacrifices, but the present rulers are destroying the democracy through their illegal steps and wrong policies”. He said the PPP and the people of Pakistan would not let Sharif and his family flee the country. He concluded his speech by raising the “Go Nawaz Go” slogan and calling the prime minister a thief.
PPP Sindh Vice President and MNA Nafeesa Shah said that Thursday’s rally was meant to highlight failures of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). She said the PPP was staging protests at divisional and district level in the province against federal government’s injustices. She said the federal government led by Nawaz Sharif had usurped resources of Sindh and it was not giving the province its due share in national resources. As a result, she said, resentment against the Sharif-led government was increasing in Sindh day by day. She said that deals were being struck to save some people involved in Dawn leaks. Former MNA Pir Aftab Jilani said that Sharif and his federal ministers were looting national assets, and the departments concerned should take notice and punish those involved in corruption.
PPP Sindh Vice President Rashid Rabbani said that all people of the province should unite to get their rights from the federal government because the federation had usurped power, gas and water of Sindh’s share. He said that PPP’s struggle for rights would continue until the people of the province get their rights. PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi and Senator Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamra-Aajiz also spoke on the occasion.
MPA Khair-un-Nisa Mughal’s brother slapped the local reporter of a private news channel at the protest rally. Senior office-bearers of the PPP had to intervene to resolve the issue.