18 January 2005	Tuesday	07 Zilhaj 1425

HYDERABAD, Jan 17: Sindh National Front chairman Mr Mumtaz Bhutto has said that oppressed nationalities of the country will have to go to Punjab and tell the masses that rights of smaller provinces are being usurped by the majority province.

Mr Bhutto was delivering his presidential address at the party convention held here on Sunday at which he was re-elected chairman of the party for the next four years. He claimed even the rulers had in a way accepted that the federal system had failed.

He expressed the hope that the confederation proposed by him would gain momentum with the passage of time. The SNF chief said he was trying to create a genuine alliance of the nationalist parties to unite people on one platform in furtherance of their rights.

He recalled that in 1983 movement, 5,000 people were killed in Sindh and said at present inhuman excesses were being committed against people of the NWFP and Balochistan. Under the circumstances, he said, alliance of the nationalists was the need of the hour.

He said all the institutions including judiciary had broken down and corruption had become the order of the day in every walk of life. He said if the repressive policies were not discontinued, the very existence of the country would be endangered. Gul Mohammad Jakhrani, Amir Bux Bhutto, Ayub Shar and Allah Warayo Soomro also spoke on the occasion.

RESOLUTIONS: The convention adopted several resolutions demanding full provincial autonomy to all federating units in accordance with the 1940 resolution, effective measures to secure the release of kidnapped persons, finding a political and peaceful solution to Balochistan problem by holding a dialogue with the Baloch leaders.