HYDERABAD: Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) secretary general Sardar Abdul Rahim has said that Pakistan Peoples Party is having its favourite officers, who are considered close to Asif Ali Zardari, posted across Sindh in a glaring example of pre-poll rigging.

He said at a press conference at local press club on Monday that officers from other provinces should be posted in

Sindh for ensuring transparency in polls. Services of staff from the judiciary should be obtained for general election, he proposed.

GDA was trying to forge a broad-based provincial level alliance with representation of political as well as religious parties.

He said that Sindh’s resources had been looted for the past 15 years.

Even the minimum basic facilities that were available to all people in civilised world were nonexistent in the province, he said.

He said the poor masses were facing unbearable price hike and inflation, the government hospitals did not have medicines and education system was in a shambles.

He said the Supreme Court’s judgement on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws amendment should be implemented and action should be taken against looters and plunderers of

public wealth. He said that the date of elections did not matter whether polls were held now or later.

The caretaker government was not responsible for the price hike as it was a result of past rulers’ deals with the IMF and looting of public wealth by a handful of families, he said.

He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government had only served only its own interests and rendered NAB virtually ineffective. Punishments should be awarded under the now restored NAB law, he said.

Rahim said that despite massive rigging GDA clinched 14 seats in 2018 polls and became the second highest in polled votes.

He said that factories and mills owners were not paying minimum wages of Rs32,000 to workers. An average household was no longer able to prepare a budget even if the minimum wages were paid, he said.

GDA information secretary Ameer Ali Thebo, Sindh United Party leader Abdul Karim Shar, PML-F district president Zafarullah Arain, Rafiq Magsi, Faqir Abdul Haleem Dars and others were also present at the news conference.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2023