June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

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KARACHI, June 2: Sindh National Front chief Mumtaz Bhutto has said that nationalist politics is in the ascendancy and nationalism that wanted to change the existing system is the “centrepiece of the politics of the day.”

Mr Mumtaz Bhutto made this suggestion in a Dawn Dialogue interview in Karachi.

He disagreed with the suggestion that nationalist platform had weakened. However, he conceded that his earlier confederal platform could not succeed owing to lack of proper groundwork and understanding by the people.

Mr Bhutto also proposed that international arbitrators should be asked to resolve the water issue between the upper and lower riparian provinces in accordance with international law and there should be an independent authority to control implementation of the accord reached.

He said that Pakistan should benefit from the experience of other countries in water sharing management.

He also called for a just share for Sindh in the distribution of resources, and called for fresh elections as “corrupt” people who were wanted by the NAB had managed to get elected and were pursuing self-centred politics.

Mr Bhutto said people were only interested in getting their basic problems solved. “Forget democracy. Give them their basic needs. Whoever gives them that, whether a king or a military ruler, anybody who lays the foundation, will be worshipped,” said the SNF chief.

“They are not interested in democracy and in what mullah is doing or what the military dictator is doing. They want protection, they want roti, kapra, makan, they want a guarantee of life and property. They want to live in peace. They want their gutters to be clean,” he said.