KARACHI, Oct 7: The mandate given by people to the panel backed by the ruling PML and its allies in the just concluded local government election is a manifestation of the fact that people are interested in getting their problems resolved and not in indulging in politics of slogans and chaos.

This was stated by Information Secretary of the Sindh PML-Q Haleem Adil Shaikh while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday. He said that the PML’s historic victory in Sindh was endorsement of President Pervez Musharraf’s policies based on enlightened moderation.

Mr Shaikh said the success of Khushhal Pakistan Panel in this province also heralded an end to the ethnic, sectarian and religious extremism.

“People have rejected leaderships of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA),” he said, and in this context referred to the defeat of PPP in Larkana, re-election of PML-Q nazim in Lahore, failure of Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s son to secure a seat, and the defeat handed to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s brother in the LB election.

The election results, he pointed out, ended PPP’s 35-year dominance in Sindh and a three-year dominance of MMA in the NWFP. People of all four provinces had expressed their full confidence in the leadership of Gen Pervez Musharraf, he remarked.

He told journalists that by electing PML-backed candidates in the LB polls, people of Sindh had expressed their strong opposition to the politics of extremism and terrorism. They had also rejected those who had always been using the ‘Sindh card’ in their politics.

Mr Shaikh urged ARD, MMA and other political alliances and parties to concede their defeat in the LB polls, as was done by former Karachi nazim Niamatullah Khan, instead of hurling threats of anti-government movements. He urged all opposition forces to play their role in establishing a better democratic order in the country and join hands with the government in the greater interest of the country and its people.

He said that 2006 would be the year of the Muslim League as it would turn 100 in that year. The PML would mark the occasion by spreading its programme in every nook and corner of the country and by streamlining the party on sound footings.

He said that MQM’s success in Karachi was a success of its ally, PML-Q, President Pervez Musharraf and all patriot Pakistanis.