HYDERABAD: PML-N leader Mumtaz Ali Bhutto gives credit for restoration of peace to Karachi to apex committee and says the PPP government should resign — as the committee’s success is tantamount to Sindh government’s failure.

“But it cares less for its poor reputation,” he said while speaking to a select group of journalists at a news conference at the Circuit House on Friday.

He said that if there had been no apex committee, the province would have fallen further down the abyss of anarchic rule.

The federal government must fulfill its constitutional responsibilities with regard to corruption and injustices, he said.

He said that if Kalabagh dam were built, Sindh would turn into a desert. Since Kalabagh dam could do harm to Sindh, Bhasha dam could be built, he said.

Mr Bhutto said that despite passage of the 18th Amendment, the centre could impose governor’s rule on Sindh.

About PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, he said the former president was not even eligible for being a councillor under the Constitution as he faced four cases of murder and 12 cases of corruption.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain was a resident of the United Kingdom who wanted to pit people of Sindh against one another. The federal government, therefore, must take action against him, he said.

He said that he had joined PML-N under an accord but the party tore it up when President Mamnoon Hussain visited Nine-Zero MQM headquarters.

He said the government must launch a probe into the allegations levelled by former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza against PPP leaders.

Later in the day, Mr Bhutto said while speaking at 10-day sit-in organised by the Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Ayaz Latif Palijo at Naseem Nagar Chowk that Sindh had been facing massive corruption, extortion and lawlessness for seven years.

Mr Palijo said that PPP leadership had left people of Sindh alone during their time of trial.

In the past, rulers breached Tori embankment to save their farmland at the cost of poor people, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015

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