KARACHI, May 30: The Sindh Council of the Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday slammed sacking of workers from various organizations, and also vowed to resist demolition of villages and declared that it would contest the two byelections in the province early next month despite government’s track record of rigging and to test the Chief Election Commissioner’s claim of transparent and free polls.
Byelection would be held in Khipro, district Sanghar and Johi tehsil of Dadu.
The meeting deliberated on matters pertaining to party membership drive, demolition of villages, growing unemployment, price hike, corruption and deteriorating law and order situation and absence of writ of the government and the overall political scenario.
Speaking at a news conference after the meeting provincial chief of the party, Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that the meeting also slammed the demolition of old Goths by the city district government in Karachi and elsewhere and resolved to resist the government move to what he termed as depriving the people of their shelter and livelihood.
Mr Shah said during PPP government, Goth Abad scheme was launched and many were regularized. But he was critical of the present government’s policy of fixing 1985 as the cut away timeframe. He said the government’s demolition policy was not only opposed to the domicile law, but was also subversion of the right of franchise of thousands of people because their names were even included in the voters’ list of 1988.
Mr Shah asked the rulers whether no one else had come and settled down in the province after 1985. He termed it a deliberate move to penalize the poor people for not supporting the present ruling coalition’s stake holders.
The Sindh Council, he said, also took notice of the government’s alleged move to further fragment some more districts of Sindh in a bid to shred the PPP vote bank. In this context, he referred to Thatta and said the people of Sindh and the PPP would not accept fragmentation of the province.
The Sindh Council also slammed the regime’s privatization policy and in this context welcomed Supreme Court’s stay with regard to privatization of Pakistan Steel. He was critical of the regime’s efforts to selloff government’s property at throwaway prices to the detriment of the people of Pakistan.
It also condemned retrenchment of workers in the MCB and other organizations and criticized the government’s “anti-worker” policies. The Sindh Council also criticized the killing of KTN’s representative Munir Sangi and passed a resolution condemning his death and expressing solidarity with his family.
With regard to Charter of Democracy, Mr Shah said the document would be the basis of future constitutional arrangement or a new social contract envisaging empowerment of the people and banishing dictatorship for ever.
Secretary General of the provincial chapter, Mr Nafees Siddiqui disclosed that efforts were being made to organize a public meeting of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) in London on the occasion of signing of the Charter of Democracy on July 2. PPP Chairperson Ms. Benazir Bhutto and PML(N) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif were expected to speak.
Mr Siddiqui pointed out that all other component parties of the ARD had endorsed the charter without any change and hoped it would give a boost to the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
President of the Sindh PPP refuted federal minister Sher Afgan Niazi’s claim of direct contact between Ms Bhutto and Genreal Pervez Musharraf . He termed it a pack of lies and part of the regime’s disinformation policy.
