MIRPURKHAS, July 4: People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA Naheed Khan has demanded formation of an independent election commission and withdrawal of cases against Ms Benzir Bhutto. She said the country needed leadership of Ms Bhutto, who would return home soon to lead the masses. She was speaking at the 52nd birthday celebrations of her party chairperson here on Sunday, held under auspices of Sindh People’s Youth, Mirpurkhas division. It was also attended by Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, MNAs Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Syed Qurban Ali Shah and Pir Aftab Hussain Shah, the divisional president of the party, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah and MPA Shamim Aara Panwhar, and others.

She said that today PPP stood as the largest political party of the country and nobody could stop Benazir Bhutto from returning to the country and added that her party had due respect for armed forces as they protected the frontiers but future of the country could not be left in the hands of army generals.

She demanded of the government to establish independent election commission in the country and cases against Benazir Bhutto should be withdrawn without delay.

She lamented that victimization of PPP leaders to change loyalties continued. She regretted that issues like price hike, unemployment and law and order remained unresolved in present government.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Safdar Abbasi said that PPP wanted democracy in the country while rulers were defrauding masses in the name of democracy.

He deplored that due to rising graph of poverty people were committing suicide while in sharp contrast of government’s claim regarding poverty alleviation. He said that people had pinned hopes in PPP for redressal of their grievances.

He appealed to people to cast their votes for PPP-backed candidates in local body elections. Syed Ali Nawaz Shah slammed those who joined PPP but were hatching conspiracies against it and urged the workers and office-bearers to expose such elements in the party. MNA Syed Qurban Ali Shah said that youths deserved the credit for bringing the party politics from bungalows to roads and streets and said that he had not accepted President General Pervez Musharraf as president as he did not adopt constitutional path of becoming president of the country.

MNA and divisional president,PPP, Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani, MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur, MPA Shamim Aara Panwhar, Amjad Baloch, Khawar Mehmood, Aajiz Dhamra, Haji Noor Hassan Chandio and others also spoke on the occasion.

Former Naib Nazim UC-3 city, Arshad Buland joined PPP on this occasion.

Later, a cake was cut by Naheed Khan.

ARRESTED: The town police have arrested a leader of a banned religious outfit, Hafiz Mohammad Akbar Rashid, on Monday following registration of a case by one Fareed Ahmad Shaikh under section 506 (2) PPC.