NAUSHAHRO FEROZE: Chief of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) Pir Sibghatullah Rashidi, com­monly known as Pir Sahab Pagara, has said the general election will be free and fair and the Pakistan Peoples Party will taste a “historic defeat”.

Addressing workers and supporters of the GDA’s member parties in Sadhuja near Naushahro Feroze on Sunday, he claimed that the 2013 election results were changed after midnight, but this time the people of Sindh would vote for GDA candidates.

The GDA comprises Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, National Peoples Party, Qaumi Awami Tehreek, Sindh National Front, Peoples Party (Workers) and some other like-minded groups.

He said the PPP had been looting Sindh for the past 10 years and it would face historic defeat in the next elections. The courts were taking notice of PPP’s corruption, he said. The Sindh government had spent Rs90 billion on development of just one city, but there was nothing on the ground, he claimed.

Army praised for surmounting menace of terrorism

Pir Pagara praised the army for curbing terrorism and restoring peace as security personnel were sacrificing their lives for the purpose. The armed forces were behind the improved law and order situation in the country, but the federal and Sindh governments were taking credit for the change, he said.

Criticising opponents for saying that the GDA candidates could not even win a seat of a councillor, he said Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari too had lost councillor’s seats, but later they became rulers of the country.

He said the PPP leaders claimed that they would again reach the Prime Minister House, but the party’s candidate had only grabbed 3,000 votes in a recent by-election.

The GDA chief said the PPP had no stake in Punjab and the PML-N had no chance in Sindh.

He said farmers and peasants were in miserable condition as they were unable to sell wheat or sugarcane and the crisis was deepening.

He urged people to vote for GDA candidates in the next elections.

Federal minister Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi said that the GDA would bring an end to corruption in Sindh where roads and infrastructure were des­troyed and the agricultural sector was also in bad condition due to wrong policies of the provincial government.

Former home minister of Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza claimed that he had earlier said that Rao Anwar was a favourite of Asif Ali Zardari and he had killed several people on the latter’s orders.

Ayaz Latif Palijo said that Sindh gave 70 per cent gas and 68pc petrol and paid 68pc of taxes, but people, especially women, in the province depended on the Benazir Income Support Programme.

He claimed that hundreds of thousands of educated youths were jobless. No industries had been established in Sindh during the past 10 years, he added.

Federal minister Syed Sadruddin Shah Rashidi, former chief minister of Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Syed Ghous Ali Shah, Nusrat Saher Abbasi, Safdar Abbasi, Masroor Jatoi and Aqib Jatoi were among others who also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018