MITHI: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government is committed to make the country safe and secure for all minority communities and faiths in the light of vision of Qauid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and other founding fathers.

Qureshi said at a public gathering held to mark Diwali festival here on Thursday that he had arrived in Thar to join in festivities with his Hindu friends and supporters and celebrate the festival of lights with them.

He said that at a time when people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir were facing the worst atrocities and barbarism by Indian forces people in Thar belonging to all Hindu communities were enjoying equal rights without feeling any discrimination.

“All religious minorities enjoy equal rights in Pakistan and freely practice their religious obligations unlike Indian states where people from marginalised communities are subjected to the worst type of atrocities and discrimination,” he said.

He asked Indian rulers to mend their ways and stop committing brutalities against Muslims and other minority communities. Thar lagged far behind other regions of the country but people had been living here peacefully with great communal harmony.

He warned that no one would be allowed to spoil peaceful environment in Thar for petty interests or political mileage. Pakistan Peoples Party rulers in Sindh had unleashed a reign of terror against their political opponents, especially PTI workers in Umerkot and Tharparkar districts for the past three years, he said.

He said that people of both the districts were subjected to the worst political victimisation during by-polls when PTI had decided to field its candidates to contest elections in both the districts.

Qureshi deplored that PTI supporters and voters were harassed and implicated in bogus cases at the behest of PPP leaders and warned police officials to stop acting like puppets in the hands of rulers.

He made it clear that from then onwards they would not tolerate political victimisation of supporters and voters of the party and asked the police officials to act and behave like true public servants.

He said that some powerful people affiliated with the ruling party in Sindh had been given free rein to commit atrocities against general public. They were openly occupying peoples’ land and other properties but there was no law to protect the poor from such cruelties, he said.

He said that the PTI government had launched a Rs1billion worth mega scheme of providing safe drinking water through reverse osmosis plants to people of his constituency but PPP rulers tried to create hurdles to its implementation.

Qureshi warned the PPP rulers to refrain from such dirty politics and instead focus on core issues of the region. Those who had recently joined the party would not be left alone in their difficult times, he said.

Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, Lal Chand Malhi, Jaiparkash Lohano, Arbab Anwar Jabbar, Advocate Lajpat Soorani, Abdulrazaq Rahimoon, Arbab inayat and other party leaders also spoke at the gathering.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2021