KARACHI, March 2: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that as the Pakistan Peoples Party was left with no issue, it was indulging in politics of non-issues. Terming the recently held by-elections as transparent he said that as the PPP had lost the elections, their position had suffered a set-back. The public meeting of in Larkana of President General Musharraf had further upset the PPP camp he claimed.

Talking to journalists in his chamber in the Sindh Assembly on Friday after the House was adjourned till Monday, the chief minister pointed out that had it been possible for the government to influence the elections, Qazi Akhtar, who was sitting chief minister of Sindh, would not have lost the 1988 elections.

“The people in Larkana are politically conscientious as such they had decided to support PML which was why they had backed our candidate and got him elected as district nazim and in the recently held by-elections for naib nazim, they had again returned the party candidate. In the next coming elections PML would emerge in Sindh with heavy mandate, he added.

The chief minister said the “charter of democracy was in fact a joke of democracy. Benazir Bhutto had in the past had hoodwinked Nawaz Sharif when after sending Asif Zardari abroad she joined hands with Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Benazir Bhutto will not attend the APC in London as she does not like to sit with the MMA. She is awaiting a US nod that was why she was neither with the government nor with the opposition.”

The chief minister said under the constitution Benazir could not become prime minister for a third time. Even in the US no one could be elected president in three consecutive tenures. He alleged Benazir would never allow Amin Fahim to become the prime minister.

In reply to a question he said today’s assembly session was requisitioned by the opposition and after this session, the government would also call its own session as the earlier one was prorogued after opposition created a rumpus.

Regarding the two islands off Karachi’s coast near Bin Qasim Port, he said there were no differences over the islands between the PML and MQM. He said the PML was not opposed to building cities on the islands but only insisted of having ownership rights of Sindh on the twin islands recognised.

Replying to another question, he said that the Larkana public meeting of President Musharraf was attended by over three lakh people and after the successful rally many PPP-MPAs had contacted him. However, he refused to divulge the number of MPAS saying Nisar Khuhro had been summoned to Dubai by Benazir Bhutto to explaination how such a big PML meeting was organised in Larkana.