February 13, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 05, 1429

THATTA, Feb 12: Sujawal police have booked former MPA, Syed Shafique Ahmed Shah Bukhari, two tapedars and three landlords for allegedly stealing cigarettes and betel leaves after breaking the doors of a cabin in Sujawal town, on Tuesday.

This is the second such case against Syed Shafique Shah Bukhari, a local PPP leader, since resumption of election campaign in the district. Earlier, he was implicated in a motorcycle theft case.

Shafique Shah belongs to a reputed political family of Sujawal. His grandfather, Syed Mehar Ali Shah was the deputy speaker of the then West Pakistan Assembly. His father Syed Sher Ali Shah was an MPA during Ayub Khan’s governance and later became president of the district local government. One of his brother late Syed Babu Shah had the honour to of being elected MPA twice during the consecutive PPP governments.

Meanwhile, Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon, a PPP candidate for NA-238 Thatta-II, termed the FIR as a political mockery and victimisation lodged on the instigation of Shirazi group leader Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi and announced to stage a hunger strike outside the DRO office in session court, if the false cases were not withdrawn against the PPP leaders and activists.

The others implicated in the FIR are: Rauf Shaikh and Amanullah Shaikh, both the serving tapedars, wadero Qasim Soomro, Shafi Leghari, both the zamindars and others.

Arbab Wazir, who is also district president of PPP, complained that the Shirazis, in connivance with the authorities, have managed to dislocate the polling stations of village Usman Jakhro, Fateh Mohammad Abro, Faqir Mohammad Palijo, Mir Junejo, Nawaz Ali Magsi, Qasim Bukero and other villages and also changed the list of presiding officers who were replaced with their favourites.