LARKANA, Nov 4: The Sindh National Front (SNF) chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto said on Sunday that the imposition of emergency even after eight years of rule was tantamount to the rulers’ confession that they had completely failed in running the country’s affairs.

Under such circumstances the rulers should better step down instead of sticking to the chair, he said, adding that they had faced failure on almost every front and the emergency would do nothing but aggravate people’s sufferings.

Mr Bhutto condemned the arrest of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Imran Khan, Dr Qadir Magsi and a number of advocates and nationalists and demanded that the government release them. The arrests would add to bitterness, he said.

The president and general secretary of Larkana District Bar Association, Ayaz Soomro and Hamid Bhurgri, said that the emergency was aimed at clipping the wings of judiciary and media.

In a press statement they described it as martial-law, which had been imposed with a new name in stark violation of the Constitution and the law of the land.

They referred to the Supreme Court’s verdict against emergency and said that the decision had invalidated the proclamation. The move would deprive 160 million people of the country of their constitutional rights, they said.

Benazir’s hometown Larkana was generally calm on Sunday. The cable system was still off and no news channel was allowed to go on air.

It is learnt that police had received orders to deal with protestors severely.

SHOT DEAD: An accounts officer of Telephone Revenue, Larkana, was shot dead in village ‘Pakho’ some 20 kilometres away from here on Sunday.