KARACHI, May 10: The Sindh chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party has planned holding of an all-parties conference (APC) here on Sunday to deliberate upon the demolition of villages, power failures, water shortage, soaring prices, unemployment, law and order, dams issue and a host of other issues affecting the people of this province.
An announcement to this effect was made by Secretary-General of the Sindh PPP Mr Nafees Siddiqui in a news conference here on Wednesday.
Accompanied by Rashid Rabbani, Rafique Engineer, Saeed Ghani, Khalil Qureshi, and others, Mr Siddiqui expressed the party’s support to the May 12 strike call given by the Anti-Kalabagh Dam and Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee and the May 27 strike call given by the Sunni Tehrik.
Mr Siddiqui alleged that the present military-led coalition government, which had attempted to marginalise the PPP at national level, was now trying to do the same in Sindh, but the party would not allow it to succeed.
He accused the government of demolishing goths of Sindhi people for the benefit of land mafia “with which the coalition is in league.”
He claimed that besides Juma Goth and Sikandar Goth, the authorities were planning demolition of three more goths, for which advertisements had appeared in newspapers. In addition, 50 more were on the ‘hit list’. In this context, he mentioned the names of Rashdi Goth, Bakhtawar Goth, Marvi Goth and Kohat Colony.
Nafees Siddiqui claimed that these goths were being targeted to damage PPP’s vote bank. He said that PPP would not allow the government to destroy these settlements.
He slammed the deteriorating law and order in the province, and also expressed concern over the situation at certain educational institutions. He alleged that the government itself was a party to a conspiracy that was aimed at keeping the people of Sindh backward and illiterate. He alleged that the violence on campuses was engineered to keep the students away from academic pursuit.
He said it was surprising to note that all such things were happening while military was in command and Rangers were getting huge fund for the maintenance of law and order. “The law and order situation in the interior of Sindh is even worse as kidnapping for ransom, dacoity and other crimes are rampant.” He said street crime in the city was also on the rise unchecked and every day, citizens were deprived of their mobile phones and vehicles.
The PPP leader said that the government’s failure in finding any clue to those involved in the Nishtar Park bomb blast was reflective of its inability to maintain law and order and ensure safety and security of citizens. He claimed that the government was trying to distract investigation.
He alleged that the government had deliberately propped up ‘warlords’ of all sorts in Sindh to divide the province, and declared that the PPP would not let the regime bifurcate the province further.
He castigated the government for the persistent increase in the rates of fuel, sugar, electricity, water, gas, etc. and pointed out that the regime was fleecing the common man in league with oil companies.
Mr Siddiqui pointed out that over the past several years, the government had not opened any new educational institution. People were not getting proper treatment in hospitals where spurious drugs were being sold, he claimed. Referring to the dug up roads in the city, he said that it had been done in such a haste “to extort money from contractors.” He alleged that the Clifton underpass was also inaugurated in hurry because elections were approaching.
