THATTA: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sassui Palijo has said that the presence of Rangers in Sindh is the need of the hour and the paramilitary forces should be allowed to stay on until restoration of complete peace and normality in the province. However, she said, both the Rangers and police have been rendering equally great sacrifices in accomplishing the mission, therefore, the highly commendable role of the police should not be ignored.

The senator was speaking at an Iftar party hosted by her at her Gharo residence for party colleagues, activists of other political parties, fishermen and other guests on Monday.

She acknowledged that actions taken by the paramilitary troops against terrorists and criminals had resulted in a sharp decline in incidents of terrorism and targeted killings.

Ms Palijo observed that taking advantage of the situation prevailing in the province, the bureaucracy in connivance with PPP opponents was hatching conspiracies against the party to derail democracy. However, she added, such conspiracies were doomed to fail.

Referring to the federal government’s relations with Sindh, the senator said that the 18th constitutional amendment provided for greater provincial autonomy and as such the Centre should stop hindering the process of provinces gaining more autonomy.

She held out the assurance that she will continue to plead Sindh’s case at all available forums, besides the senate, over plunder of its resources.

Earlier the former MPA and father of Senator Palijo, Ghulam Qadir Palijo, welcomed the participants and said, the propaganda that the PPP was a spent political force would never succeed because the PPP was a party of martyrs and remained deep in the hearts of common men

Ms Palijo also condemned Indian security forces’ excesses against the fishermen being caught by them on false allegation of violating the sea border, and said that fishermen from Thatta and Badin district were harassed, caught and jailed.

She said she had constantly been raising the issue in the senate with request to the federal authorities to ensure the jailed fishermen’s early release.

She said she would continue to work for the well-being of all fishermen belonging to Thatta, Badin, Sujawal, Ibrahim Haidery and other coastal areas of Sindh.

She also spoke about moves to revive the Kalabagh dam project, and said that vested interests within the federal government were bent upon reviving the dead issue.

She reaffirmed her party’s resolve to foil all such nefarious designs.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015

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