LARKANA: Executive committee of the newly-formed Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) met in Mirpur Bhutto, the native village of Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, on Sunday and took stock of the situation with reference to the ongoing process of delimitation of union councils prior to the proposed local government elections.

With its convener former PPP MPA Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi in the chair, the participants said there was an attempt to gerrymander the Larkana district by the government to defeat its opponents in the elections scheduled for September in Sindh, sources privy to the meeting said.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Abbasi said that sensing something fishy in the delimitation procedures, a lawyers committee headed by Babu Sarfraz Jatoi was constituted to challenge flaws, shortfalls and lacunae.

The meeting also discussed the issue of corruption in different departments in the context of ongoing development schemes in the districts of Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot.

The meeting expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order in Larkana and called for improving it whereas the committee decided to form union council level bodies of the alliance.

It was decided to hold a corner meeting of the LAI in Larkana city on June 14.

Those who attended the meeting included former adviser to the prime minister Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, Larkana PML-N divisional president Babu Sarfaraz Jatoi, Akbar Shah Rashdi of the PML-F, Shafqat Hussain Unnar of the PTI, Badaruddin Abbasi, Sardar Fida Hussain Gopang, Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Tarique Nazeer Shaikh and others.

Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who heads the alliance, could not attend the meeting as he is out of the country.

The LAI was launched on May 15 at Abbasi House in Larkana and Mumtaz Ali Bhutto chaired its maiden meeting.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2015

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