KARACHI, June 19: The Sindh chief of Pakistan People’s Party and Leader of the Opposition in the provincial assembly, Nisar Khuhro, has taken strong exception to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s allegation that the PPP was using ‘Sindh card’ by raising the Thal canal issue.

In his statment issued here on Wednesday, Mr Khuhro said that he was surprised to hear such a wild accusation against the PPP from a group “which had worked for the breakup of the country.”

He reminded the MQM that it too had been invited again and again to the consultative meetings held for the purpose of forming the Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee. He claimed that they (MQM) chose not to participate in any of those meetings either because they did not want to upset the Establishment or because they were wary of sitting with parties which believed in federation.

“Now that the people of Sindh have spoken with one voice against the project, MQM is also shedding crocodile tears in its practised method of paying lip service to the oppressed while actively teaming up with the oppressors,” he alleged.

Mr Khuhro pointed out that just a few days back it was their administration which subjected the residents of New Karachi and Lyari to brutal lathi charge and teargas shelling for demanding drinking water. The residents of New Karachi, he added, now well realized the true colours of the people for whom they had voted in the past.

“They are the ones who speak the loudest against the Establishment but rush to the rescue of the Establishment whenever they are needed for blocking democracy and oppressing the people,” Mr Khuhro remarked.

Commenting on the MQM’s announcement that it would quit the government if Thal (project) was not stopped, he said that the project would be stopped by the pressure of the people of Thal whose lands were being snatched away at the rate of Rs300 per acre to be given to generals; by the people of Sindh, whose water was being diverted; and by the people of Pakistan, who saw this canal as a conspiracy against the federation.