BADIN, Oct 18: The chairman of the Sindh National Front and Sindh Qaumi Ittehad (SQI), Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, has said that smaller provinces will not accept the government’s move for granting provincial autonomy by amending to the constitution.

The provinces demand complete provincial autonomy as envisaged in the 1940 resolution and decentralisation of powers in accordance with the Pakistan resolution, he said.

Mr Bhutto said while speaking to a cross sections of people at an Iftar party arranged by his party leaders at Memon Community Hall on Tuesday that people of Sindh had been forced to lead a miserable life for a long time and Balochistan continued to bleed from the wounds inflicted on it with total impunity.

He termed the Hudood bill and other issues raised by the government just an effort to divert peoples’ attention from the burning issues. But, people would resist if the bill was passed in connivance with PPP, he warned.

Mr Bhutto observed that attempts were being made to turn Sindh into a land of non-Sindhis as the main cities of Karachi and Hyderabad had already been handed over to MQM.

Gen Musharraf’s steps were leading the country towards instability. People are the real owners of the land and when their rights are denied, revolutions take place, he said.

He expressed his delight at the fact that other politicians were raising the same demands which the front had been fighting for. “No worry, they have “hijacked” the front’s slogans and manifesto. It is still a good omen for the people of Sindh in particular and for other smaller provinces in general,” he added.