HYDERABAD, Dec 23: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy has criticized the Sindh government for imposing section 144 Cr.PC throughout the province and said the move is aimed at sabotaging the alliance's Jan 2 public meeting in Sukkur.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Thursday, Sindh ARD general-secretary Zain Ansari, vice-president Sardar Rahim and Malik Mohammad Naeem Awan regretted that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the ruling party were free to hold public meetings anywhere they liked without any restrictions but the government had imposed ban on the ARD's public meeting through section 144 Cr.PC.

Mr Ansari sarcastically said President Gen Pervez Musharraf was never tired of paying lip-service to the cause of democracy but he had banned holding of public meetings. "What sort of democracy is this," he asked.

He said it was a cruel joke with democracy and parliament that the president was holding the army post despite, he claimed, he had retired on Oct 12, 1999. He said even if the general left the army by Dec 31, the ARD would not accept him as the president.

Referring to the poor law and order situation in Sindh, he said it was an irony that even sessions judges were not safe. He said the writ of the Sindh government had totally disappeared.

He observed that this was clear from the fact that families of the kidnapped judges had appealed to the bandits on television to release the judges because they knew that there was no government in Sindh.

About the water issue, the ARD leaders said the River Indus was lying dry and a large number of people of Hyderabad, Badin and Thatta had died last year for want of clean water. Even then, he regretted, Gen Musharraf general had declared that Kalabagh dam and Thal canal projects would be constructed.

He claimed that there was no mention of the Thal canal in the 1991 water accord. He further claimed that not a single civilian owned any land in the area which would be irrigated by this canal. He said all lands there belonged to generals.

He said if the president visited Sindh to muster support for construction of the Kalabagh dam, he would face strong protests by people of the province.