KARACHI, Jan 26: The Sindh Council of the PPP has strongly condemned the recent constitutional amendments and maintained that the condition of possessing graduation degree for contesting the election to the parliament was a violation of the fundamental rights.

This has been spelt out in one of the resolutions adopted by the SIndh Council, which were released here on Saturday.

The party has maintained that while rich people have access to higher education, through this amendment, the regime had blocked the way of the working class and the down-trodden, to represent their people in the parliament. It is an attempt to establish the dictatorship of the rich and a few elite.

It maintained that even in those countries where literacy rate was much higher than Pakistan, no such condition had been imposed for contesting parliamentary elections.

In another resolution the party also expressed concern over the short period allowed for the registration of voters and demanded of the Election Commission of Pakistan to allow at least one month for the said exercise. It reminded the EC to note that during local bodies elections names of at least 30 per cent voters were not included and names of some of the office-bearers of the PPP were surprisingly not included in the list.

The PPP also demanded restoration of separate electorate and that condition of showing the national identity card for casting vote should be waived.

The Sindh council of the PPP also expressed concern over the growing water shortage in the province and criticized stoppage of water at the required time, which had badly affected the agricultural sector.

The resolution in this context also flayed what it termed as inequitable distribution of water which had also affected the federation.

Recalling a previous agreement on river water distribution by a former CM of Sindh, the resolution claimed that the military regime was using that unjust deal through the Indus River System Authority to deny Sindh its due share of water.

The party also criticized the suspension of development works in the province and criticized the ongoing down-sizing which had left a large number of people unemployed.

The meeting also criticised the Atomic Energy Commission for not conducting tests and interviews as per advertised schedule for the applicants seeking job of engineers in the Commission.

The meeting also criticised alleged inhuman treatment meted out to Hyderabad jail inmates.