11 August 2004	Wednesday	24 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

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HYDERABAD, Aug 10: People's Party Parliamentarians MNA Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has opposed army operation in Balochistan and urged the government to go for political option to settle the issues.

He was talking to journalists at the residence of MPA Ali Nawaz Rizvi here on Tuesday before leaving for Islamkot to attend an election campaign meeting of the PPP candidate in Tharparkar.

He said that the people of Balochistan were justified in raising the issues of poverty, joblessness and backwardness in their area and royalty for gas. The PPP leader insisted that all problems could be resolved through political dialogues.

He denied that his party was not seriously taking the by-election in Tharparkar and said that objections about election malpractice had been sent to the Election Commission. He alleged that government machinery was being ruthlessly used in the election campaign of Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

He regretted that in the last 57 years, the country had not established an autonomous election commission. He rejected reports that the PPP was holding negotiations with the government but hastened to add that there was no harm if the dialogue was held and it would not be held through back door.

He said that the issue of uniform of the president had been settled under 17th constitutional amendment and there should be no doubt about it. He added that even President Gen Pervez Musharraf, in his televised address to the nation, had referred to the point.

He deplored economic conditions in the country, saying that prices of essential commodities had increased by nine percent. He expressed dissatisfaction over law and order situation and said that number of bomb blasts had increased.

Later, talking to this correspondent, he did not agree to the suggestion that the Tharparkar by-election was just a legal formality and said that the PPP had put up its candidate to deny walkover to Mr Aziz.

He said that the people of Attock and Thar supported the PPP and added that only the Sardars and Waderas were supporting the government candidate. No one should underestimate the power of the masses, he said.

He claimed that he was witnessing the resurgence of the spirit of 1970 when the masses had catapulted PPP to power. He said that perhaps it might take a little more time but the history was bound to repeat itself. Mr Makhdoom has a sizable number of disciples in Tharparkar district but not enough in the NA-229 constituency to make much of a difference.

ANP: "The country is in the grip of a crisis as Balochistan is being crushed through force, the Greater Thal canal is being constructed despite opposition from entire Sindh and unemployment and price hike have made lives of people miserable."

This was said by provincial president of the Awami National Party Shahi Syed at a meeting of the district chapter of the party here on Monday. He deplored that the historic city of Hyderabad was in ruins, traders had taken to the streets, demanding repair of Makki Shah road, but the government and district administration were least interested in resolving the problems.

He directed the ANP workers to activate the party cadre in order to initiate a struggle for resolving problems of the city residents. The meeting resolved to re-organize the district chapter of the party at grass root level and appointed a four member committee for the purpose.

The committee was directed to complete the reorganisation before September 15 and submit its report at the party's district council meeting on the same date.

The ANP district president, Syed Shahid Ali, presided over the meeting which was attended by the central labour secretary of the party, Rana Gul Afridi, provincial general secretary, Farooq Bangash, deputy secretary, Basheer Jan and others.