LARKANA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Sindh leader Shafqat Unnar, who organised the party’s public meeting in Ali Abad a day earlier, on Saturday dismissed comments of Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon who termed it a poor show and advised the minister to be bold enough to face facts.

Mr Unnar said at a press conference here at the press club that the PPP had been in a state of shock since “witnessing a sea of people who voluntarily participated in the PTI public meeting”.

He said that a tsunami had hit Sindh and now no one could stop its forward surge. The PTI would make serious efforts to bring about equality in society, he said.

When he was told that it appeared that PTI chief Imran Khan was unclear about the party’s stand on the Kalabagh dam, Mr Unnar said that his leader had categorically stated not only at the Ali Abad public meeting but also in Multan that the dam would not be built.

He criticised what he described as the double standards of the PPP and said that in Sindh the party’s legislators pretended to be against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement while in London they welcomed them with open arms.

People had rejected this kind of politics and bad governance had ruined almost all government departments in Sindh where the PPP had been ruling for years, he said.

The government which could not control price hike, improve law and order, ensure transparency in development works and provide jobs on the basis of merit could not serve the masses well, he said.

Big and small farmers alike were calling for the announcement of paddy’s support price but the government was unmoved while hospitals faced an acute shortage of medicines, he said.

He thanked people for participating in the public meeting in large numbers, though, he said, they were provided transport to reach the venue. “We had received threats but the Larkana deputy commissioner and the SSP did everything they could to help us. Therefore, we are thankful to them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014