KARACHI: Referring to what he observed “talk of the town,” Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said his Pakistan Peoples Party was fully prepared for possible early general elections in the country, and expressed his confidence that it would do even better in Sindh. “The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf will disappear from the political scene of the country due to its consistent failures in every segment of governance,” he said.

“I hear people saying that general elections in the country are going to be held soon,” he said. “The PPP is fully prepared for the next general elections even if they are held early. We are very focused in line with the directives and policy of our chairman [Bialwal Bhutto-Zardari]; and we are very much confident to achieve the desired results. But let me tell you, I don’t see PTI anywhere after the next elections. You will not find them here [in Sindh], nor in Punjab, Balochistan and KPK [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]. The people would not forgive them,” the chief minister said.

Mr Shah was speaking at a press conference arranged by his party colleague to share with the media a plan for PPP’s rally on Oct 17 in connection with the 14th anniversary of the 2007 Karsaz bombing and the party’s strategy to counter the recently-promulgated ‘National Accountability Second Amendment Ordinance 2021’, besides discussing the political situation obtaining in the country.

He also described the NAB amendment ordinance another failure of the PTI government, saying that it’s promulgation had made the whole episode controversial due to its [PTI’s] “incompetence and lack of political sense.”

“Has anyone seen any ordinance coming from this [federal] government for the relief of the masses? ... Have you ever been approached by the government for suggestions on legislation which directly relates with the people?” he questioned, and deplored that the ordinance recently promulgated was aimed at directly benefiting federal ministers. “This government had made the legislature a joke”, he remarked.

Earlier, Mr Khuhro shared a sketchy plan for the party’s Oct 17 event. The rally has been organised to remember those PPP workers who were killed and injured in the bombing of the Oct 18, 2007 homecoming rally of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto at Karsaz. “Hundreds of thousands of jialas from all over Sindh will gather to express solidarity with the party and denounce the selected government of PTI,” Mr Khuhro said.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2021