January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 14: Deploring the military operation and killing of innocent people in Balochistan, the Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday demanded an immediate halt to such activities which, it said, “had pushed the country into an intensive care unit” and were akin to the policies which the rulers had pursued in the case of the former East Pakistan.

Secretary-General of the PPP Sindh, Nafees Siddiqui made this statement while addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club. Waqar Mehdi, Rashid Rabbani, Rafiq Engineer (MPA) and Raheel Iqbal were also present.

Mr Siddiqui said the rulers had not yet decided about the kind of a political dispensation and constitution to be enforced in the country. Their whole focus was on extending the ‘one-man rule’ which was not in the interest of people, he said.

He rejected the regime’s claim about prosperity and progress, and observed that due to the government’s wrong policies, the country was among the three most illiterate countries.

Mr Siddiqui equated the Balochistan situation with the one that had prevailed before fall of East Pakistan due to denial of rights to people of that wing.

He strongly deplored the killings on Eid day in Balochistan, saying that they had been carried out in a ‘custodial killings’ manner as people had been dragged out of their homes and eliminated.

Contesting the government’s claim of having acted against terrorists in Dera Bugti, and asked why there were more children and women among the dead. He said that two brigades of army, paramilitary troops and levies were involved in the operation in which helicopter gunships were also being used.

He pointed out that East Pakistan had been forced to the point of alienation by Ayub Khan, and alleged that Gen Musharraf was pushing Balochistan and other provinces in the same direction.

On Kalabagh dam issue, he said it was not an issue between Sindh and Punjab, but a problem that concerned the whole of Pakistan.

He said that those who were claiming that the PPP’s Sindh and Punjab chapters had different positions on the KBD were misleading people. Those who were advancing such argument were similar to those who supported the government in its policy of denying the East Pakistanis their due rights.

Mr Siddiqui said that a rally against Balochistan operation and KBD project would be held in Hyderabad on Jan 18. It would be followed by a similar rally in Hala where top brass of the Anti-Greater Thar Canal and Anti-Kalabagh Dam Action Committee would assemble.

He declared that Gen Musharraf would not be allowed to impose KBD, and suggested that the issue be left up to the next elected government. He also did not agree with a questioner that the opposition should go to the Supreme Court in this regard.

Asked why he was silent on bombings in some areas of the NWFP, Mr Siddiqui said the PPP was against bombing anywhere in the country. But since the focus was on Balochistan and KBD, it was not mentioned.