KARACHI, June 14: Castigating the regime for the arrest of MPA Zahid Bhurgari in a ‘false’ case and his production the court for remand, with handcuffs and blindfold, leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro on Tuesday asked the National Democratic Institute to take notice of human rights violations in Sindh.

Talking to newsmen, he also vowed to challenge the government on all fronts, and said he would also write to the chief justice of Pakistan, urging him to take cognizance of plunder of rule of law by the regime, which had let loose a reign of terror and victimization against the opposition.

Mr Khuhro said that the treatment meted out to an elected representative was tantamount to humiliating him and his electorate.

He also criticized the government for not allowing him (Mr Khuhro) to move a motion condemning the arrest and for adjourning the proceeding without any justification.

He said that the concerned DPO, who had arrested and implicated MPA Bhurgari in a false case, could have been sacked for this offence but the government was trying to protect police and justifying its tactics.

He claimed that the aim of the action against the MPA was to harass the opposition legislators. He pointed out that the contradictory report of the DPO Jamshoro that had been provided to Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah proved that Mr Bhurgari had been implicated in a false case.

Mr Khuhro quoted from the DPO’s report and questioned as to how Mr Bhurgari was found involved in this act while he was under police custody at 9pm on June 12. He claimed that the PMA had been arrested from a labour convention where he (Mr Khuhro) and Mian Raza Rabbani, leader of the opposition in Senate, and other leaders were also present.

He further pointed out that according to the report, the SDI Aamri had claimed that four unknown persons were crossing the Ranikot link road at about 0400 hours on June 13, 2005. The police personnel deployed at the picket asked them to stop but the unknown persons started running. The police personnel arrested one person while the other three ran away. The arrested person was identified as Zahid Bhurgari, MPA.

He said that the report appeared contradictory and this proved that the MPA had been implicated in a false case.

Mr Khuhro accused the government of wasting the time of the house because it did not want the budget to be discussed on the floor of the house. He, however, declared that the opposition would actively participate in the budget discussion. He vowed that the rulers’ designs to destroy the democratic process would be foiled.