SHIKARPUR, Aug 28: PML-Q MNA Ghous Bux Mahar has said that the breaches in Tori protective embankment of the Indus river and Sindh Canal near Jumo Mahar village, which unleashed large-scale devastations in upper Sindh, were not natural but man-made.

Speaking at a news conference near Saadullah Napar village here on Friday, Mr Mahar said that the breaches were made deliberately at both the sites by irrigation authorities and other officials in order to save farmland and factories of a federal minister and some PPP leaders.

They did it in contravention of the experts' decision to breach an embankment near Ali Wahan, alleged the MNA who belongs to Shikarpur district, major parts of which has been submerged by water from the two breaches which now poses a threat to historic Shikarpur city.

Mr Mahar said that if a cut were given at the embankment suggested by experts on the left bank near Ali Wahan, tens of thousands of people, small and big towns and villages and thousands of acres of standing crops could have been saved.

He appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take suo motu notice of the man-made breaches and form a high-level judicial commission headed by none other than himself to conduct a probe into the disaster.

He said that the demand for the inquiry would also be raised on the floor of the National Assembly.

He expressed surprise over contradicting statements given by Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo who had admitted in his initial reaction to the breach that the cut had been given in Tori bund officially in consultation with experts but later changed the statement and said the breach had occurred naturally.

He said that he believed in peoples' power and opposed imposition of martial law in the country. He opposed calls for mid-term elections and demanded that the rulers should resign from their offices and form a national government because they had failed to redress peoples' grievances.

He expressed concern over what he termed the rulers' step-motherly attitude towards opposition leaders and their voters. No any elected representative of the opposition party was taken on Shikarpur district relief committee nor were they invited to any meeting of the committee to present their views about the problems being faced by flood affected people, he complained.

Even flood affected people belonging to opposition parties were being discriminated against in provision of food and relief goods, particularly in Garhi Yasin taluka, he said.

He advised the PPP government not to indulge in poli- tical victimization at this critical hour because it was no time to play politics when people were in distress and looking for help.