HYDERABAD, Aug 29: The Sindh National Council has rejected government's claims that construction of cantonments in Balochistan will increase opportunities for education, health and employment in the province.

A meeting of the supreme executive committee of the SNC, held here on Saturday, demanded that institutes of technical and information technology be established in every district of Balochistan and education be made free in the province.

It also demanded that the amount of royalty for gas and other mineral resources given to Sindh and Balochistan should be equal to that paid to Punjab.

The meeting, presided over by the party's leader, Dodo Maheri, condemned kidnapping of people belonging to minorities. It observed that Sindh was in the grip of lawlessness but its chief minister was repeating again and again that everything was fine.

It noted that the federal system always used undemocratic governments as a weapon to protect its vested interests and rural areas of the province had been handed over to feudal lords.

The meeting was of the view that the numerical strength of non-Sindhi ministers, advisers and secretaries had been increased. It observed that closure of Sindhi-medium schools in Karachi and conversion of hundreds of schools into guest houses in the interior Sindh was a proof that the Sindh government was not serious in the promotion of education.

The meeting criticized the resolution of the Sindh Assembly, calling for issuance of national identity cards to aliens. It demanded that the assembly should instead adopt a resolution declaring the entry of immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Burma, China, Iran and Afghanistan was illegal under the Citizenship Act 1952 and seeking their repatriation.

The meeting demanded that Sindh should be given full royalty for its 336 gas and 86 oil fields.