KARACHI, Jan 14: The Pakistan People’s Party has blamed the government for creating artificial shortages of flour, electricity and water and held the Musharraf regime responsible for arson and rioting in the wake of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

In a statement issued here on Monday, former leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Pir Aftab Shah Jillani, Pir Mazharul Haq and Rashid Hussain Rabbani said that holding of condolence references and meetings in every nook and corner had proved that loot and plunder was carried out under a conspiracy by the regime to defame the patriotic workers of the PPP.

The PPP leaders charged that the mourning workers and party supporters travelling to Naudero to pay homage to their leader were attacked allegedly by the private militias of the former Sindh chief minister, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, former federal minister for water and power, Liaquat Jatoi, and others belonging to the PML-Q.

One of the PPP workers, Kashif Baloch, was gunned down on National Highway, while former PPP MPA Akhtar Jadoon was shot at and wounded seriously, they said.