KARACHI, Dec 15: Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, on Friday accused the regime of misleading people by creating doubts about credibility of political parties for creating more dissentions and fragmentation in their ranks so that the military-led regime could be perpetuated through a doctored election.

He said the regime had deliberately tried to damage PPP’s image by propagating that the party had been in secret dialogue with the government. Now, the same ministers were saying in categorical terms that there was no such thing, he pointed out.

Nisar Khuhro, who was here in connection with a court appearance in Eshwar Lal case, reaffirmed PPP’s commitment and said its struggle would continue for democracy and supremacy of the Constitution by dislodging dictatorship of all sorts with people’s power. He criticised the regime for mounting employment, soaring prices, continuing power outage, victimization of political dissent, and the precarious law and order situation across the country.

He criticised the federal and provincial governments for pursuing the controversial Kalabagh dam project despite the fact it had been rejected by the provincial assembly as well as the people at large.

He was of the view that there could be no free, fair and transparent elections under General Musharraf’s dispensation. He said some politicians had been made the punching pad for a long time and they paid with their life for their mistakes.

In an environment where terrorism was rife and the writ of law evaporated, the rule on gunpoint had completely eroded the moral authority of the State, he said.

Leader of the opposition referred to reports of dissension within the ruling PML-Q and said the trend was reflective of the sinking ship. He said while some of them had looked towards the PML-F many had also approached the PPP for taking them into its fold. He said the ‘usurper regime’ failed in providing basic facilities and rights to the people and adopted coercive means to suppress their voice. He said a single man was playing with the destiny of the whole nation and emphasised that it was high time for the people to strike a final blow to the dictatorship of General Musharraf through their unity and courageous steadfastness.

Nisar Khuhro also criticised the regime for instituting ‘illegal and politically motivated’ cases against Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari and others.

He said the usurpation of rights, coercion, price-hike, insecurity, power failures and water shortages had brought the people on street. The coercive policies of the regime would not deter the PPP cadre to be cowed down and give up its struggle, he said.

Referring to his indictment in the FIR lodged against him and four other MPAs, Mr Khuhro said it was regrettable as he was not involved in the incident. He said he would face the legal battle and added that the lodging of FIR against him and four other PPP MPAs by the ruling party member Eshwar Lal was an afterthought and a tool of harassing the voice of those who challenged the government on principles.