KARACHI, Oct 2: The Jeay Sindh Tehreek and Sindh National Party have termed the new local government law anti-Sindh and reminded the government of Benazir Bhutto’s commitment to rid the people of Musharraf’s system, which the Sindh government has reimposed on the province with cosmetic changes.

JST chief Dr Safdar Sarki and SNP chairman Amir Bhambhro speaking at separate press conferences at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday warned that the new law would lead the province towards a civil war.

Dr Sarki said the law was passed by the PPP-MQM coalition government on the day when in 1988 their alliance had resulted in the massacre of 450 sons and daughters of the soil and their properties worth millions of rupees were plundered.

He announced a protest programme of the party “until the repeal of the black law”.

The programme would include taking out of protest rallies and staging of demonstration from Karachi to Kashmore on Wednesday over the use of violence against party workers and sympathisers by agencies personnel.The programme, he said, included a rally on Oct 14 in Karachi against “the division of Sindh” and to commemorate a day of unity of Sindh followed by a Nov 3 march from Jacobabad to Karachi.

He appealed to the Urdu-speaking people to join them to “foil the conspiracy”.

Amir Bhambhro of the SNP said the people of Sindh had mandated the PPP to change the obsolete system, but the government had instead imposed the dual system on Sindh in the name of democracy.

He said the SNP was opposed to the system from day one of its imposition and had also filed a petition in the apex court on Sept 18.

The SNP chief announced staging of a token hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday to save Sindh and if the government did not roll back the law, the party would stage a hunger strike till death.