UMERKOT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice chairman Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that PTI has not become part of the kind of politics being played by “friendly opposition”, which has compromised peoples’ rights and made a fool of nation for four and a half years.

The Ghousia Jamaat that he heads, Sarwari Jamaat of Makhdoom Jameeluzzaman and Hur Jamaat of Pir Pagara would join hands in upcoming elections, said Mr Qureshi while talking to villagers’ gatherings during his visit to different parts of Umerkot on the third day of his Thar visit on Wednesday.

He criticised PPP MPA Ali Mardan Shah for “victimising” his disciples and PTI workers by implicating them in fake cases, stopping supply of irrigation water to their land and transferring government employees out of the district.

PTI leader says he will contest elections from Umerkot, Tharparkar

He warned Mr Shah to refrain from political victimisation or be ready to face the same consequences in future.

He said that PML-N had split into two groups over issues of policy. PTI expected NAB chairman to recover looted money, he added.

He said that Karachi was a major city which generated huge revenue for the country but it had now turned into a large heap of garbage.

If there was no Rangers in Karachi no one would have been secure, extortionists would have ruled, land mafia would encroach upon land and china-cutting would have gone on uncontrolled, he said. He said that if Rangers and army were called to help in disasters and even in collection of utility bills then what was the use of civil administration.

Mr Qureshi said that huge public gatherings in villages of Umerkot were a sign of change. They gave rulers a message that people had now got fed up with their politics, their cheating, their cruelty and corruption.

He said that when he was filing nomination forms to contest election from Thar he was advised by political pundits that Umerkot was PPP’s stronghold, but he had now developed cracks in their fort.

MITHI: Mr Qureshi said at gatherings in different villages around Dahli town that people of Sindh who were the worst affected by corruption and bad governance wanted to get rid of corrupt rulers by voting for PTI and other anti-PPP forces.

He said that PPP had done nothing for Sindh and its people during its long rule in the province. Agriculture sector was in a shambles and now farmers of cotton in barrage areas and tillers of land in Thar were facing the worst kind of exploitation in the shape of low price for their crops.

He criticised the PML-N ministers and said that they had always attacked national institutions which was the main reason for their own downfall. The time of corrupt rulers was over now and positive change had already started setting in.

Mr Qureshi slammed PPP leadership for squandering public money on unnecessarily holding public gatherings instead of focusing on real issues of the province.

He said that it was sad to see the devastation wrought in the province by its greedy and corrupt rulers. People of Sindh wanted change and this change would prove to be the first drop of rain on this parched desert land and its people.

He said that PTI under the leadership of Imran Khan was gaining popularity in all areas of the country and hoped that it would sweep general elections with the help of anti-PPP forces and form government in Sindh.

He announced contesting elections from Umerkot and Tharparkar districts and said that this time PPP candidates would never be allowed to rig elections as they had done in Thar and Umerkot during last general elections.

Mr Qureshi said that the party chief Imran Khan would visit Umerkot on Oct 20 to celebrate Diwali festival with Hindus.

Mr Qureshi was accompanied by MNA Lal Malhi, PTI minorities’ wing president Jay Perkash Ukrani, Akbar Palli, Jahansher Junejo and other leaders.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017