MARDAN, Feb 7: A convention of Pakistan Peoples' Party (Sherapo) was held at the Mardan Press Club (MPC) in which Syed Kamal Shah was nominated president and Saddique Bachaa general secretary of the PPP-S provincial constituency PF-24.

Speaking on the occasion Kamal Shah criticized the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) and said the MMA had deceived the people in the name of Quran and was minting money. He claimed that the MMA government had failed to come up to the expectations of the people and alleged that its ministers and even the chief minister were involved in massive corruption.

He also alleged that they were busy in grabbing plots and building palaces. He said that the people of Mardan were victims of vested interests in politics and that a particular family of the Hotis was fanning differences among the local and provoking feuds among various families.

Kamal Shah asked workers of PPP-S to work hard to bring a large number of people to Sherpao village on the death anniversary of Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherapo on Feb 8. Hayat Sherapo was the chief minister of the NWFP when he was killed in a bomb blast at Peshawar University in 1973.

Meanwhile, the divisional president of the PPP-S, Ms Gulzar Shahnazar, claimed that the party is becoming popular in Mardan division because it not only knows problems of the people but is also making whole-hearted efforts to solve them.

Talking to this correspondent at the MPC, she said that she joined PPP when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto founded it and she was its first information secretary in Mardan. She said she had waged a struggle for betterment of the people, particularly for female members of the society. She said when Mr Bhutto was hanged, PPP leadership passed into the hands of some vested interests who ruthlessly discouraged the old and selfless workers and she was left with no option but to leave the party.