11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 10: The Pakistan Peoples Party has stated that Mr Shaukat Aziz would not represent aspirations of the people of Sindh, as he was a candidate of the regime which was denying the province its share of water.

In a statement made on Saturday, PPP central information secretary Taj Haider said that Shaukat Aziz, before contesting election from Sindh, must explain why the waters of the Indus had turned poisonous and many children died. He also asked him to explain why more than two million acres of farms and fields were under sea water.

He said that Shaukat Aziz was a candidate of those constructing the Greater Thal Canal and who had vowed to build the Kalabagh dam in spite of widespread protests.

Mr Haider was of the view that those colluding with Mr Aziz for personal gains had bartered away the genuine water rights of Sindh and its due share in the financial resources. They were providing him a foothold by making hollow promises and announcing development programmes in Thar, he said.

He held Shaukat Aziz and his economic programmes responsible for the "abject poverty, sky-rocketing unemployment and unparalleled misery with which the people of Sindh have been suffering".

He alleged that the government was breaking all electoral laws and "openly counting on large scale rigging in the elections". He pointed out that there were 204 polling stations in Thar constituency, where communications did not exist and people had to travel for hours over huge sane dunes to reach the polling station. He alleged that these were the ideal conditions for government-sponsored rigging.

Mr Haider pointed out that the turnout all over Pakistan had remained very low in the 2002 elections. He said that 70 per cent population of Thar had already migrated from the area owing to severe drought, thus, the election commission was requested to postpone the polls. Yet the polling rate was higher than 95 per cent and all of those votes were cast in favour of the establishment-backed candidate, he added. He maintained that the polling percentage even in congested areas like Lyari and Larkana was 22 per cent.

The manipulation of people's will by the State would have dangerous consequences, he alleged pointing at the widespread anarchy owing to which people had been completely excluded from the political process.

Meanwhile, PPP deputy secretary general Mian Raza Rabbani said that efforts were still continuing to agree on a joint candidate to oppose Shaukat Aziz in the by-elections for the two national assembly seats.

Commenting on the haste in which Mr Jamali was "shown the door by his boss", Mr Rabbani said that it appeared that all the high sounding slogans of political stability, checks and balances, acting as a political stabilizer were beginning to tear at the seam.

"It is for the first time in Pakistan's political history that a prime minister has been brought in for a limited period of time to facilitate election of the real prime minister," he said. He further said that it was also the first time that "a person who does not qualify to be the prime minister, in terms of the constitution, has been nominated."

He said that according to the proposed amendments in the Political Parties Order 2002, no prime minister, chief minister, governor, federal minister or provincial minister would be able to hold any party office.

In order to facilitate Shujaat Hussain to continue as prime minister and president of the party and the provincial chief ministers to continue as provincial president of the party an amendment was being brought about. It showed how laws enacted by them were being amended to suit political expediencies of the ruling party, he added.

He recalled that when Zafarullah Jamali was nominated as the prime minister, an amendment was made to the order that any person who had remained prime minister or chief minister for two terms, could not seek office for a third term of either. This was primarily made to keep Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif away from power, he alleged.