KARACHI, April 14: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has once again urged President General Pervez Musharraf to give complete autonomy to Sindh and other small provinces.

He was addressing the gatherings of party’s general workers on telephone simultaneously in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Sanghar, Thatta, Badin, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana and Dadu on Saturday, said a Muttahida press release.

Mr Altaf said Gen Musharraf was promising various reforms, but first of all he should do one thing: ensure complete autonomy to Sindh and other smaller provinces, and not impose outsiders on the people of the province. People from Sindh should also be inducted in the army and police and they should also be appointed as IG and DIG police, he added.

The Muttahida leader also demanded action against the so-called nationalists who, he said, were issuing statements against the harmony and interests of the people of Sindh.

Altaf Hussain said people of Sindh were now aware of the establishment’s policy of divide and rule which also caused differences between the Urdu and Sindh-speaking people.

He said the Sindh solidarity convention, being organized by the party at Nishtar Park on April 19, would be a milestone in the struggle for Sindh’s rights. He urged the people of Sindh to show unity on the occasion.

Referring to the presidential referendum, the Muttahida chief said the coordination committee of the party had left the matter of participation in the referendum on the discretion of the party people. However, those who are criticizing the coordination committee’s stance on the issue and maintaining that Muttahida had become a silent supporter of the referendum should know that if the party had intended to support the referendum process it could have done so openly, he added.

He said the Muttahida had adopted a principled stand on the occasion of local bodies’ polls and boycotted it as it believed that the process was tantamount to robbing the provincial autonomy.

RABITA COMMITTEE: In a statement, the coordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has criticized a reported decision to dislodge the retired federal government employees and their family members from government quarters in Martin quarters, Clifton quarters, Pakistan quarters, and Jehangir Road.