HYDERABAD, March 25: The National Workers Party (NWP) chief Yousuf Masti Khan on Sunday criticised the political parties for their lukewarm support for the lawyers’ movement against Gen Musharraf’s "command and control system" in the country.

Mr Khan said at a news conference at the press club that under this system, no democratic or constitutional institution could survive.

Instead of accepting the rights of the federating units and solving the issue of provincial autonomy, the regime launched a military operation in Balochistan, killing hundreds of people, rendering thousands homeless and detaining an unspecified number, he alleged.

He supported Sindhis’ struggle for judicious distribution of water and sovereignty over its economic resources and said that the misdirected and ad hoc policies of the rulers had pushed the NWFP towards religious fanaticism, terrorism and tribal wars.

He said that instead of solving people’s problems, the military rulers were squandering state power on prolonging their rule while the country’s economy was on the verge of collapse due to its subservience to the imperialist policies.

He said that trade unions

had been deprived of their

democratic rights and the rural population had been left at the mercy of tyrant feudal lords in the absence of a clear agriculture policy. He criticised the increase of Rs630 per bag in the price of fertiliser.

Mr Khan slammed all the major parliamentary parties for their lukewarm response to the running protest against authoritarian rule.