LARKANA, May 7: Leader of opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Mr Nisar Khuhro, has demanded that the government should form an independent supervisory body to monitor the general elections.

He said that the recent by-polls had thrown chief election commissioner’s impartiality into doubt.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, Mr Khuhro said the recent by-election in Hyderabad was a litmus test for the CEC.

Despite the fact that the Pakistan People’s Party had informed him of everything in writing about its apprehensions, the polls were completely rigged which proved he (CEC) had lost his control of the polls, he said.

Mr Khuhro called Gen Pervez Musharraf’s recent meetings with leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League in Islamabad a clear example of pre-poll rigging.

He said that the president had nothing to do with the PML as it was a political party.

It was strange for him (Musharraf) to pronounce that Chaudhry Shujaat would remain the party president, he said.

This indicated that Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim who happened to be the provincial PML chief, had lost control over his party in the province, he remarked.

In response to a question, Mr Khuhro castigated the City District Government of Karachi for demolishing old Sindhi localities on the pretext of removing encroachments.

Why had the city government acted against people living there since 1970, he asked.

When Jumma Goth was bulldozed a ‘builder’ hung street banners appreciating the city nazim for his action and now another builder had resurfaced, he said.

This raised suspicions that there was something wrong, he said, adding that it was a conspiracy to uproot Sindhis from the province’s capital.

Blasting what he called MQM’s duplicity, he said on the one hand they were celebrating Jashn Latif while on the other they were busy demolishing Sindhi localities and dislocating Sindhis in Karachi.

The party had also remained silent over the Kalabagh dam which Gen Musharraf was adamant to construct, he said.

He said that the PPP was fully prepared to participate in the upcoming general elections, and demanded that a caretaker government of national consensus be formed prior to the elections and the election commission be made powerful and independent.

SUICIDE: Mohammed Ramzan Brohi, a resident of Brohi village, committed suicide by consuming insecticide on the outskirts of Ratodero on Sunday.