March 17, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

THATTA, March 16: The office-bearers of the Pakistan People’s Party and affiliated organisations warned the party’s central leadership against what they saw as nefarious designs of Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s forward bloc in Sindh assembly, and advised it to discourage their attempt to sneak into the party through backdoor.

The president of the Thatta chapter of PPP Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon, general secretary Pir Ghulam Rehmani, president of People’s Youth Organisation Abdul Hamid Soomro and member of central executive committee Imtiaz Qureshi said at a press conference that the PML-Q affiliated Shirazi group, who had dominated the district for over a decade and usurped state resources, was active in the forward bloc and was trying to make way into PPP ranks.

They said that the Shirazis implicated hundreds of PPP workers in false cases and usurped billions of rupees of national wealth in the name of development works, which were substandard.

The coastal areas of the district remained drought-hit for years during their tenure and their government did not release required water into Indus downstream Kotri, leading to inundation of over 2.1 million acres of fertile coastal land by seawater, they said.

They alleged that the Shirazis shifted the entire state machinery from the district offices to their Otaqs and added to the miseries of problem-stricken population as well as compelling officials to visit their Otaqs daily.

They claimed that entry of three candidates out of seven who succeeded in general elections through massive rigging, individually or in the form of a forward block would inflict a fatal blow to the party and discourage the activists.

Meanwhile, PPP MPA from coastal constituency of Mirpur Sakro Ms Sassui Palejo said that the party would honour the mandate given by coastal population and help restore people’s legitimate rights.

The party would open enormous avenues of livelihood including revival of Keti Bandar port-cum-fish harbour and mega power plant in the coastal area, she said.

She was speaking at public meetings in the coastal villages where she had gone to express her thanks to the people who had voted her to the assembly.

SALARY: The recently recruited employees from grade -I to IV in the district education department complained on Saturday they had not received salaries for last four months.