KARACHI, Sept 4: The leader of the opposition in the Senate and Deputy Secretary-General of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Mian Raza Rabbani, has rejected the government’s so-called fact sheet on the situation in Balochistan as “concocted and contrary to the truth” and a manifestation of the regime’s vindictive repressive policies against those who were opposed to it.

In a statement issued here, Mr Rabbani claimed that the opposition had repeatedly asked the regime to bring facts about Balochistan and the situation leading to the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti in the parliament but the ruling coalition failed to do so and evaded debate in the assemblies because it had no proof and was actually guilty of cold blooded murder.

He alleged that the regime, through its negative approach and propaganda was encouraging politics of hatred which was not in the interest of the country, which he feared, was being relegated to 1971 situation because of the dictatorship’s quest for silencing the voice of dissent, at all cost.

The PPP leader was of the view that events from the murder of Akbar Bugti to his burial were ample proof of the military-led regime’s policy of vindictiveness and accused the regime of deliberately engineering sectarian and provincial hatred to escape public wrath.

He urged the people to remain united and should not get bogged down in the trap which the dictators had laid for them. He demanded that the regime must stop these criminal acts and should release all those arrested.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, has demanded extension in the date for the registration of names in the voters’ list, which concludes on Sept 11. He claimed that in view of the evolving political situation following the ban on teachers association and the unrest caused by the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, about 80 per cent of the work of registration in the voters’ list had not been completed.

He accused the ruling coalition of doing the selective listing and deliberately ignoring the areas where Sindhis and other supporters of the PPP were in majority.

The issue was also taken up by the PPP, Karachi in its meeting presided over by Rashid Rabbani and attended among others by Rafiq Engineer, Saeed Ghani, Afaq Shahid, Najmi Alam, Qasim Baloch, Fareed Ansari and Sardar Khan.

They expressed concern over government’s alleged pre-poll rigging in the preparation of the electoral list and showed misgivings over election commission’s haplessness.