KARACHI: No protest rally or demonstration was reported from any part of Sindh till late in the evening over the arrest of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani by a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Reports from upper, lower and central districts of the province suggested that no spontaneous reaction emerged from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers and supporters after the news of the arrest was aired by TV channels and spread like wildfire across the country.

Most senior PPP leaders present in district headquarters preferred not to issue any statement on Mr Durrani’s arrest.

BADIN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Badin district president Nawab Abubakar Talpur held a news conference in Talhar to express his party’s satisfaction over NAB’s move to look into the corruption charges against political heavyweights. He welcomed arrest of the Sindh Assembly speaker and said people by and large were fed up with corrupt leadership due to the miseries let loose on them by such elements. He advised the top PPP leadership to purge the party of such elements. “The speaker should also be removed from the top post of the august house,” he said.

He said most PPP leaders found involved in plundering public money over the past 11 years would soon be sent behind bars so that the masses could heave a sigh of relief.

He alleged that irrigation water present in whatever quantity in the Kotri Barrage used to be diverted to PPP leaders’ lands while other growers remained deprived of their share for many months.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2019