KARACHI, July 4: Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Monday urged people to resist the military regime’s nominated candidates in the next local body elections and the unbearable hike in the fuel prices. In a statement, he alleged that the government was trying to perpetuate its rule through rigging. Mr Khuhro said the regime, which had already raised POL prices for six times in seven months, was planning to further raise the same up to $1 dollar (or Rs60) per litre if its nominated candidates won the local bodies elections through gerrymandering the election process.

The PPP leader recalled that petrol was available at Rs15 per litre when the PPP government had been dissolved in 1996. During the last one year, he added, Rs9 were added to the per litre price.

He urged people living in every nook and corner of the country to rise up and wage a struggle to foil the military regime’s attempts to steal away the results of the local bodies elections. The regime, he said, wanted to push the masses into a slough of inflation and price-hike so that nobody could be able to divert his attention towards the misdeeds of the undemocratic regime and the ‘test-tube’ politicians it was carrying along.

He said that the pre-poll rigging being carried out in a blatant form in Sindh proved that the regime was out to turn the total electoral process into a ridiculous exercise.

“Musharraf wants yes-men. His cronies also want yes-men as nazims. Thus the whole process of elections seems to be aimed at inducting yes-men all over the country,” he said, adding that the PPP, along with democratic allies, would foil such attempts under any circumstances.