May 11, 2005	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, May 10: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has taken serious note of Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s statement published in a section of press that he owed his election to the province’s top slot to the military and not to the parliament or the people.

This is an important evidence from the horse’s mouth that democracy in Pakistan was not restored through the October 2002 elections, said former chief minister and PPP Sindh president Syed Qaim Ali Shah in a statement.

Mr Shah said it was shocking that a man facing serious charges of human rights violations was picked to run Sindh solely due to connections with the military. “This is not democracy,” he maintained.

He said the Sindh chief minister’s confession was a proof that Sindh as well as the rest of the country was being governed by non-representative and unconstitutionally constructed governments.

Keeping in view these facts, he said it was unsurprising that the present structure was collapsing and people’s problems were increasing. The central government was unable to keep quorum despite an army of ministers. It was being defeated on bills. The Punjab administration was resorting to human rights excesses to prevent people from exercising their freedom of movement because it feared its unpopularity would be manifested, he said.