SUKKUR, July 30: Central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party MNA Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah has warned of grave dangers to Pakistan’s integrity and likened the prevailing situation to that of 1971 crisis which had led to the dismemberment of Pakistan.

Addressing a gathering of Awam Dost nazims and councillors on Sunday, he siad that the regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf who was acting like former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev, was destabilising the country by ad hoc measures and patronising blackmailer groups like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

He said that Gen Musharraf’s position as the president and the Chief of the Army Staff at the same time was unconstitutional, and the situation had worsened by his (president’s) participating in the PML’s political activities.

Mr Shah said that Gen Musharraf’s uniform had so far kept his PML intact and the day he shed it the party would not only desert him but would itself collapse like a house of cards.

He blamed the MQM for using blackmailing tactics in Sindh to get its unjust demands, including the CDGK Scheme 33 accepted. The Scheme 33 was aimed at giving away 0.2 million acres of prime land to party workers, he said.

The MQM had in the past divided Hyderabad and Sukkur on rural and urban lines and had now set into motion plans to convert the Hyderabad taluka government into a city district government, he said.

Calling for an early end to the military rule, he said that Pakistan was the result of a constitutional struggle led by Quaid-i-Azam while the army had brought it to the brink of disaster.

Making comparisons between India and Pakistan, Mr Shah said that India had been progressing steadily since 1947 under democratic and civilian governments while Pakistan was still mired in corruption and army rules.

Islamuddin Shaikh, former senator and member of the PPP CEC, said in his speech that the present government came into being after large scale rigging in the elections. MQM’s politics hovered around blackmailing, bhatta, permits and plots, he alleged.

He called upon people to get themselves prepared for the elections, which he said were quite near, and get their names on electoral lists.

MPA Jam Saifullah Dharejo, MPA Dr Nasrullah Baloch, MPA Jawed Ali Shah and Mushtaq Surhio also spoke on the occasion.