LAHORE, Jan 6: Former Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia has accused former chief ministers Pervaiz Elahi and Arbab Ghulam Rahim of trying to drive a wedge between people of Punjab and Sindh provinces by spreading what he called “provincialism”.

Addressing a press conference along with former Punjab PPP information secretary Naveed Chaudhry here on Sunday, Zia, who was opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, said that both the former chief ministers had become ‘political miscreants’ after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and they were trying to ignite confrontation between the people of Punjab and Sindh provinces.

He said that the PPP was exercising the policy of restraint and trying to pacify its workers after the assassination of its chairperson, who had advised them to struggle against terrorism, but the caretaker government in Sindh had started victimising them by implicating hundreds of thousands of them in false cases of arson attacks and rioting and putting them behind the bars. “It should stop doing so before it was too late to mend,” he warned.

He said that Pervaiz Elahi was a political pygmy, dreaming of prime minister ship without visiting other provinces and holding a few corner meetings in Punjab alone. A criminal case should be registered against him for advising the people of Punjab to wind up their businesses in Sindh and return.

Naveed Chaudhry said that the country was facing a power crisis because the Musharraf government, contrary to its tall claims, had failed to complete any significant power project during its eight-year rule.

It used to criticise Benazir’s government for awarding thermal power contracts at the rate of 6 cents per KWh but had itself awarded contracts for 14 cents per Kwh, he said and added that Pervaiz Elahi had squandered hundreds of millions of rupees on his publicity campaign but had failed to build small dams in the province to generate hydel power.

He said the caretaker government was not expected to hold the elections even on Feb 18 as the PML-Q was not likely to win these elections due to the gas, power and flour crises originating from its five-year rule.