February 07, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 28, 1429

HYDERABAD, Feb 6: The People’s Party leaders and its candidates from Tharparkar district have said that due to the alleged high-handedness of former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim it has become impossible for them to run their election campaign.

They said the PPP candidate for PS-62 seat Nagarparkar, Sharjeel Inam Memon, and dozens of party workers had been implicated in false cases to impede their election campaign and added that they were holding this press conference after seeking bail from the Sindh High Court.

Mr Sharjeel, engineer Pesumal Okrani, candidate for PS-61 seat, Mithi, former MPA Inayatullah Rahimoon and Abdul Ghani Khoso claimed that PPP flags and banners were being removed under personal supervision of Arbab Rahim.

They said the caretaker Sindh government has become a partisan, and after having lost all hopes in other districts, Arbab Rahim was fighting for his political survival in Tharparkar district.

They alleged that the former chief minister had been given licence by the caretaker government to hijack the public mandate and he was being fully supported by the DRO, DPO, presiding and polling officers and the district government.

They said they had raised their voice at all forums against the alleged excesses of Arbab Ghulam Rahim but in vain.

They accused the former Sindh chief minister of hiring the services of a notorious dacoit, Mir Mohammad Nohri, to create bloodshed in Tharparkar district.

Following the visits of Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi to Tharparkar, the situation had radically changed and Arbab Ghulam Rahim will face a crushing defeat, they said.

They demanded of the Election Commission to adopt effective measures to avoid bloodshed and to transfer the entire administration of the district, which was performing the role of domestic servant of Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

They demanded that the private force which comprised notorious dacoits and criminals should be arrested and the army should be deployed at all the polling stations of Tharparkar district to ensure peaceful elections.

They said grade-6 employees who belonged to Arbab Rahim’s clan and had been posted as presiding officers, should be replaced with gazetted officers.

DEMO: A large number of students of Jamshoro MUET belonging to SPSF staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Wednesday against the director institute of information technology, University of Sindh, Imdad Ali Ismaili.

Talking to newsmen, SPSF leaders Nooh Panhwar, Waseem Leghari and Aqeel Qureshi said that Mr Imdad had removed and destroyed a portrait of Ms Benazir Bhutto in the university’s IIT department.

They warned that if he did not tender an unconditional apology to the students and people, they will stage protest demonstrations throughout Sindh.