HYDERABAD, Aug 4: Sindh People's Party Parliamentarians president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro has condemned the operation in Wana and Balochistan. Accompanied by MPA Zahid Ali Bhurgari, Syed Shah Mohammad Shah, Amanullah Siyal and other party leaders, Mr Khuhro was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday.

He said that the army operation in Wana and Balochistan had endangered the unity and integrity of the country. He alleged that it was because of an army operation that half of Pakistan had been lost in the past and now the country's integrity was again in danger.

"What the army is trying to prove by killing our own people in Balochistan and the NWFP", Mr Khuhro asked. "All that Javed Mengal, Akhtar Mengal, Abdul Hayee Baloch and Nawab Mohammad Akbar Bugti have done is that they have raised their voice for the rights of their people", he observed.

He accused Gen Pervez Musharraf of trying to pit the army against the people, and one province against the other. If President Musharraf was so sensitive about presence of terrorists in Wana and Balochistan why did he not take any notice of terrorist activities in Karachi on the by-election day in which 13 people were killed, he asked.

He said people had committed no crime by raising their voice against what he called an artificial government, cobbled together through 'lotacracy', or for their due share of water and financial resources.

Mr Khuhro, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, said the government was least concerned about price hike and unemployment in the country. The only thing President Musharraf was concerned about was to find out methods to strengthen his rule, he alleged.

Observing that if people were weakened the country would be weakened too, he demanded that the operation in Wana and Balochistan should be stopped forthwith. About the by-election in the Tharparkar constituency, the PPP leader accused Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim of harassing opposition workers.

He alleged that the chief minister had stopped supply of irrigation water to lands of PPP leaders Pir Amjad Shah Jilani and Nawab Yousuf Talpur and other members of the party's election cell.

He also criticized Dr Rahim for his statement that no person from outside Tharparkar would be allowed to enter the district and outsiders could not become election agents. There was no such law in the country that people from one part could not visit the other during elections.

What was the Election Commission doing, he asked. He alleged that Chief Election Commissioner had been sent on forced leave and the acting chief was taking no notice of election mal-practices.

The PPP leader said the only reason for banning the entry of outsiders in Tharparkar on the election day was that they would expose rigging in the polls. He said international observers were allowed entry in the district as they could visit only a few polling stations.

He feared that the same exercise would be repeated which was undertaken in the October general election when 95 to 100 per cent votes were cast in this constituency while the overall turnout in the country was 25 per cent. Mr Khuhro demanded that the Election Commission should take notice of the mal practices.