KARACHI: Judicial probe demanded into HR abuses in Thar
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, July 11: Pakistan People’s Party, Sindh chapter, has alleged that police were victimizing its supporters and dislodge them from their areas in various parts of the province. It claimed that the aim was preventing them from casting their vote for PPP candidates in the upcoming local bodies elections. Addressing a news conference at Bilawal House on Monday, provincial chief of the party Syed Qaim Ali Shah condemned the action and pointed out that the police had resorted to such action against PPP supporters living near Nooriabad and other parts of Sindh. He also slammed the jail authorities’ refusal to release Shahid Alam alias Guddu Bihari in defiance of court orders.
Mr Shah, accompanied by Senator Safdar Abbasi, MNAs Dr Fahmida Mirza and Fauzia Wahab and PPP city chief Rashid Rabbani, declared that such coercive measures would not deter the party from pursuing its struggle for the emancipation of the downtrodden and supremacy of constitution.
He urged the Election Commission to take serious notice of the violation of electoral laws and urged the superior court to take suo motu notice of the same.
He claimed that Guddu Bihari, who had secured the highest number of votes as nazim (of Orangi Town) in the country was not being released because he had carried out tremendous development work in his area.
Mr Shah also accused the police of harassing local supporters of PPP and threatening them with dire consequences if they voted for party. “Palaris and Jakhros living in the areas near Nooriabad are old supporters of the PPP and during Mr Asif Zardari’s drive to the interior Sindh after his release, they had accorded him a warm welcome on the way.”
The PPP leaders that a former Awam Dost nazim had been implicated in false cases whereas houses of several party supporters intending to contest the local bodies’ elections were being raided by Jamshoro police repeatedly for the last one week. They alleged that Mohammad Khan Chandio, the former nazim of UC Hamal in Warrah Tehsil of Qambar-Shahdadkot district, had been arrested at the behest of the ruling party’s Shabbir Chandio and implicated in a 20-year-old murder case only to force him to change his loyalties.
The PPP leaders also criticized the regime for “utter negligence and carelessness towards the grave violations of human rights in the desert district of Tharparkar,” claiming that this had led the poor and oppressed people to slaughter their own families and commit suicide to escape more injustices, degradation and humiliation.
“This is a horrible trend and the Supreme Court must take suo motu notice of the situation, and form a judicial commission to hold an inquiry into the affairs,” said Nafees Siddiqui, secretary general of the PPP Sindh.
Referring to the last week’s incident in village Bhada Sandha, Tehsil Chachro, the PPP leader said that a primary teacher belonging to the scheduled caste had slaughtered all members of his family — mother, wife and three children — before committing suicide. He quoted media reports as suggesting that a few days before resorting to the heinous crime, the man, Kirpal Meghwar, had been forced to pay Rs20,000 to police as extortion by some local police touts and smugglers, who played such games hands in gloves with the local police.
