LARKANA: Leaders of the Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) have warned Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to be ready to answer peoples’ questions regarding the “massive corruption” and other injustices his father Asif Ali Zardari and aunt Faryal Talpur have done to people of Sindh.

They said addressing a pre-poll public gathering of the anti-PPP alliance of several parties at Otha Chowk, seven kilometres from here, late on Friday evening that since Bilawal was preparing to contest election from Larkana he would have to answer all legitimate questions people would like to ask him.

The leaders resolved to give a tough time to PPP in Larkana district in upcoming general election and announced fielding candidates on all seats of Sindh and National assemblies.

Dr Safdar Abbasi, president of PPP-Workers, said that people wanted to know 10-year account of PPP’s misrule in the province. “The people who will vote [for] you as the son of Benazir Bhutto will be justified in raising questions and ask you whether you followed political philosophy of your mother,” he said.

He said the difference between PPP that existed prior to Dec 27, 2007, and the PPP of today was Asif Ali Zardari. Thieves, thugs and corrupt elements had hijacked the party with Mr Zardari in the driving seat exploiting people in the names of Bhuttos, he said.

He said that people of Larkana were compelled to drink highly contaminated water whereas state of education, health and other sectors had crumbled to lowest level even in Larkana.

Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam said that the public meeting had proved that people were getting sick of Zardari and his “corrupt coterie”.

He said that he would contest against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari from Larkana in upcoming election and rid people of Sindh and Larkana of PPP which was being led by thieves, thugs and robbers.

He painted a bleak picture of performance of education and health departments and said that potholed, damaged roads, erratic provision of civic amenities and crippled drainage system in Larkana were giving the lie to PPP leaders’ tall claims about having carried out record development works in the province.

Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, convener of LAI, said the PPP government, over its 10-year corrupt rule, had deprived peasants of their rights and forced them and their families into starvation by denying them reasonable procurement price for wheat, rice, and sugar cane.

Riaz Chandio, chairman of his own faction of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, lashed out at PPP government and said the party had compromised Sindh’s rights by condoning the practice of issuance of CNICs to aliens and exploiting natural resources. Performance of almost all government departments had nosedived, he said.

Dado Allah Bakhsh Unnar, Maulana Nasir Mehmood Soomro, emir of JUI-F Larkana, Akbar Shah Rashdi of PML-F and Moazzim Abbasi of PPP-W called upon National Accountability Bureau to probe speedy increase in Siyal family’s wealth. The family had amassed huge fortune and had been living beyond their means, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2018