KHAIRPUR, Oct 22: The president of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has said that the party’s workers and office-bearers have been facing state persecution and victimisation throughout the province.

“It is in fact a war between democratic forces and elements, supporting dictatorship which will be won by the people and PPP workers,” Mr Shah said while speaking at a gathering in Luqman on Saturday.

Citing examples of the persecution, he said that fake cases had been registered against party workers including former district nazim, Syeda Nafisa Shah, an MNA and two MPAs.

He described the government’s claims about restoration of democracy as a big joke and the present government had come into power after trampling people’s rights. All the constitutional amendments made by Gen Pervez Musharraf should be repealed to restore real democracy, he said.

Former District Nazim Nafisa Shah said that Luqman had been made a no-go-area for PPP workers. All except a few persons and political groups were struggling for the restoration of democracy, she said

The world would see with its own eyes the Pakistani people casting their vote against dictatorship if the next general elections were held in a genuinely transparent and impartial manner, she said.

She said that the land mafia had made people’s lives unbearably difficult.

The mafia culture had trickled down from the federal government down to the union councils, she said.

She termed the islands’ sale the latest example of injustice to Sindh and Sindhis and said that it would render homeless the fishermen who were living there for centuries.