KARACHI, April 23: Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal, the chief of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement, on Friday opposed the Gwadar port project, saying it was not meant for the local people. The project, he claimed, would benefit only a particular class of Punjab.

Sardar Mengal was speaking at Ponam's first public meeting in the city, at Nishtar Park, as part of the movement's mass mobilization campaign. He said that Ponam was not against development but it certainly would not allow anyone to turn the local population into a microscopic minority, as happened in Karachi which was once a city of three lakh people and now had a population of over 15 million where it had became difficult to found the locals.

He pointed out that in Gwadar a piece of land which could once be bought for a few hundred rupees was now fetching millions of rupees because people knew that Gwadar was the 'Karachi of future'.

Sardar Mengal laid down a set of conditions for the development of Gwadar - equal rights for the people "giving us the authority to impose taxes, legislative powers and administration of the provinces".

After that, he said, people from outside could be brought for work and investments. They would have to pay sales tax and would have to make locals their partners in their businesses.

President of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai said that Ponam could form a larger alliance with the ARD for a joint struggle on a programme of making parliament the supreme institution, with the army and agencies being subservient to it and having no involvement in politics.

He said Ponam was not against the military but certainly it would not give to generals and the agencies the right to indulge in politics.

Other speakers at the meeting were Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Maulana Azizullah Boyo, Maulana Abdullah Bhutto, Gul Mohammad Jakhrani, Syed Zain Shah Mohammad Khokar, Abdul Majeed Kanju, and Ghulam Shah.