HYDERABAD, Jan 16: As many as 226 leaders and workers of the local chapters of the Pakistan Muslim League and Sindh Punjabi Students Association have joined the People’s Party Parliamentarians.

This was announced by the district president of the PPP, MPA Zahid Ali Bhurgari, at a news conference at the press club on Tuesday. A large number of new members of the PPP were present on the occasion.

Former joint secretary, SPSA, Malik Iqbal, and former general secretary, PML, UC-16, Rana Adnan, told journalists that they had joined the party because they were impressed with the leadership of Benazir Bhutto and party manifesto.

They said that Ms Bhutto was the only leader who could extricate the country from the crisis and resolve the problems of the people.

Mr Bhurgari criticized the rulers and said that they had become security risk for the country. He demanded resignation of those running the government, including President Gen Pervez Musharraf, and formation of a caretaker government and an autonomous election commission to hold free, fair and impartial elections in the country.

He said that Ms Bhutto would definitely return to the country anytime during the current year. He warned that if the government tried to create hurdles in her return, consequences would be disastrous for which the president and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would be responsible.

OIL PRICE CUT: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, in a statement isssued here on Tuesday, said that the decrease of Rs4 per litre in the price of petrol and Rs1 per litre in diesel price was a joke with the people.