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| November 8, 2005 | Tuesday | Shawwal 5, 1426 |
PPP opposes APC on language issue
LARKANA, Nov 7: The leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, has opposed the chief minister’s proposal for convening an All Parties Conference on the language issue and said it will be a futile exercise.
Talking to Dawn at his residence here on Monday, he alleged that the chief minister himself had reopened the language issue to divert people’s attention from large- scale rigging in the local body election.
He said the chief minister had made himself busy in the election and handed over his executive authority to the governor. He said the governor had bypassed the Sindh Assembly and issued a notification on the language issue.
He regretted that the provincial education minister and the secretary for education acted on governor’s orders and without informing the chief minister, issued the notification.
Answering a question, the PPP leader criticized the chief minister for not implementing a unanimously-adopted resolution of the Sindh Assembly to impart Sindhi even in private schools.
He observed that if the chief minister convened an APC on the issue, it would meet the same fate as the APC convened by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
He said administrative matters were being handled politically.
Replying to a question about the earthquake death toll, Mr Khuhro said the government should announce correct figures, instead of issuing conflicting figures to further confuse the nation.
He welcomed the constitution of an emergency earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority but said the condition that it could not be challenged in the court had made it questionable.
He said the nation had the right to know about performance of the authority and utilization of funds at its disposal. He said the authority should be made accountable.
Mr Khuhro regretted that the government had accepted aid from India but was reluctant to allow Benazir Bhutto to return and take part in relief activities in affected areas.
He said national leaders like Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and even Altaf Hussain should be allowed to return.
Answering another question, he said the PPP was prepared to contest the naib nazims’ polls but apprehended that the chief minister would again rig the elections as he had done in the first phase.
Procurement centres: Procurement centres will be set up for paddy in the Qambar-Shahdadkot district to offer maximum chances to growers to sell their produce.
This was announced by DCO Mukhtiar Soomro at a recent meeting with growers.
The DCO assured the growers that uniform rates of paddy would be fixed in the district. He said PASSCO would be approached for timely establishment of procurement centres in the district. He said the district government was committed to solve genuine problems of growers on priority basis.
Qambar Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Karim Chandio, general secretary Moharram Ali Chandio, Hafiz Noorul Haq, Farooq Jagirani, Qaim Khan Shaikh, Mir Fida Hussain Magsi and Ali Hassan Kamalani attended the meeting.
Mr Chandio said growers were not getting a reasonable price for 40 kilograms of paddy in the Qambar town whereas in Shahdadkot, Mirokhan and Lalu Raunk towns, paddy was being sold at higher rates.
He demanded that the district government should take steps to ensure proper paddy rates and announce a uniform procurement policy in the district to end monopoly of rice millers.
He said the government should announce a support price for paddy to assist growers in selling their produce.
The DCO assured him of his cooperation in this regard.
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