HYDERABAD, Nov 27: Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo has held waderas (feudal lords), Mirs (aristocrats), Pirs (spiritual leaders) and Sardars (tribal chieftains) responsible for enslaving millions of Sindhis by keeping them illiterate.

Talking to party workers and delegations of students from Karachi and Hyderabad here on Sunday, he said that the Sindhis had been deprived of their inalienable rights because Sindh’s feudal gentry did not want any change in the province.

Rejecting the process of elections, he said that they were like administering pain-killer to a cancer patient.

“What is the use of elections where an elected prime minister is deposed in the middle of night and another prime minister, who enjoyed a heavy mandate, was not allowed to return to his own country,” he asked.

He said that under the circumstances the elections could neither protect the country nor the rights and resources of the people.

Mr Palijo said that elections benefited only the wealthy waderas, Pirs, Mirs and Sardars and criminals.

He said that people were dying due to dengue virus, but elected representatives did not have the money to arrange for any medicines.

He said that the rulers were spending tens of millions of rupees on the import of Mercedes.

He said that crime had become a very profitable industry and honest and conscientious police officers were being removed and replaced by those who had given an undertaking to earn tens of millions of rupees for themselves and their benefactors.

He said that the education of Sindh was being destroyed.

He said that at present Sindhis had been left with only one option to get their rights through a peaceful, democratic and consistent long struggle.