DADU: Sindh United Party (SUP) leader Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah has accused the Pakistan Peoples Party of having raised the issue of curtailed gas supply to Sindh to protect its leaders and activists involved in corruption of billions of rupees.

“The gas issue is being used by the PPP as part of its pressure tactics to force the federal government and other institutions to agree on yet another NRO [national reconciliation ordinance],” he told participants in a protest march held by his party here on Saturday.

He said the 30km march, from the Allama I.I. Qazi library to the Makhdoom Bilawal shrine, was aimed at exposing massive corruption on the part of the Sindh government and condemning terrorism and religious extremism in the province.

Mr Shah said that if the PPP and Sindh government were sincere in taking up the issue of gas with the federal authorities, the SUP would welcome it. However, he said their sincerity was doubtful as the PPP had already surrendered 50 per cent stakes of the Thar coal project to the Centre.

The SUP chief observed that the PPP had ruled over the province for 22 years in various tenures and it ‘destroyed’ all departments by always indulging in corruption. “It cannot present a single example of good governance,” he said.

Mr Shah alleged that the PPP and its affiliates had become ‘mafias’, which had been plundering public money, grabbing millions of acres of public and private lands and forging state records at their whim.

He questioned the declaration of education and health emergencies in Sindh, arguing that not even a symbolic improvement had been witnessed under such an orchestrated move.

“Thousands of schools are still lying closed and millions of students are out of school. In health sector, hospitals do not have doctors, paramedics and medicines in a minimum required number,” he said.

Mr Shah described the PML-N as PPP’s equal partner in destroying provincial departments. “They are partners in Sindh’s destruction and protecting one another ... their hard-hitting statements and hostile moves are nothing but a drama,” he added.

Idris Chandio, Mir Maula Bukhsh Leghari and Safar Bhand also spoke.

The event ended with a mystic music programme held outside the shrine.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017