LARKANA: Emergency a confession to failure, says Mumtaz
By Our Correspondent
LARKANA, Nov 4: The Sindh National Front (SNF) chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto said on Sunday that the imposition of emergency even after eight years of rule was tantamount to the rulers’ confession that they had completely failed in running the country’s affairs.
Under such circumstances the rulers should better step down instead of sticking to the chair, he said, adding that they had faced failure on almost every front and the emergency would do nothing but aggravate people’s sufferings.
Mr Bhutto condemned the arrest of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Imran Khan, Dr Qadir Magsi and a number of advocates and nationalists and demanded that the government release them. The arrests would add to bitterness, he said.
The president and general secretary of Larkana District Bar Association, Ayaz Soomro and Hamid Bhurgri, said that the emergency was aimed at clipping the wings of judiciary and media.
In a press statement they described it as martial-law, which had been imposed with a new name in stark violation of the Constitution and the law of the land.
They referred to the Supreme Court’s verdict against emergency and said that the decision had invalidated the proclamation. The move would deprive 160 million people of the country of their constitutional rights, they said.
Benazir’s hometown Larkana was generally calm on Sunday. The cable system was still off and no news channel was allowed to go on air.
It is learnt that police had received orders to deal with protestors severely.
SHOT DEAD: An accounts officer of Telephone Revenue, Larkana, was shot dead in village ‘Pakho’ some 20 kilometres away from here on Sunday.
Amir Bakhsh Bouk was gunned down when he was sitting at a shop.
He was shifted to Chandka Medical College Hospital in a serious condition where he succumbed to his injuries.
The assailants escaped after the murder which was reportedly an outcome of an old enmity.
JOURNALIST ROBBED: Some armed men snatched a vehicle at gunpoint from a journalist working for a private TV channel and robbed him of his valuables while he was on his way to Ghotki with his friend near ‘Dakhan’ on Sunday afternoon.
S Iqbal Babu was briefly kidnapped along with his friend Abdul Rehman and as the armed men released them after taking away his car and other valuables.
The matter was reported to the police but till the filing this report no progress has been made by them.
However, Sukkur Regional Police Officer Mohammed Bachal Sangri had phoned and assured the journalist for early recovery of the car and arrest of the outlaws.
