SUKKUR, July 30: The former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ellahi Bux Soomro, has said that delay in the announcement of National Finance Commission (NFC) award was causing resentment adding that reservation of the provinces must be kept in mind before the final announcement of the award. He observed this while speking at a press conference in Jacobabad on Saturday.

He said that Kalabagh Dam should not be constructed when the three provinces were opposing it. He said that due to an ill-conceived foreign policy, the country was losing its friends, which was not a healthy sign.

Mr Soomro said that better relations with India was need of the hour which, he added, must be on equal footings. He said that local body elections could never be transparent amid kidnappings, arrests, threats and raids on opposition candidates.

He termed these methods part of pre-poll rigging and urged the Election Commission to take notice of such negative activities.

WOMAN DIES: A married woman Hazooran 25, died mysteriously in Mazhar Lashari MOhalla, Thull on Saturday. She was found dead in her house whose husband claimed that she died because of electrocution while Aiban, father of the deceased woman, claimed that his daughter was strangulated and later electrocuted.