LARKANA, April 27: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the doubts regarding the referendum must end with the Supreme Court decision terming the referendum legal and constitutional.

He was speaking at a gathering of Nazimeen, Naib Nazimeen, councillors and notables of Larkana at a hotel here on Saturday.

Gen Musharraf said that he had already made it clear that he would abide by the Supreme Court decision and now that not a single member of the nine-member bench of the court had termed the referendum illegal and unconstitutional, nobody should have doubts anymore.

He said that he was not vindictive against any group, party, organization or any individual on personal grounds.

Responding to the demands of Larkana District Nazim Khursheed Junejo, the president announced that 900 villages would be provided electricity and one-third of the electricity charges on the tubewells would be borne by the government.

He also asked the Sindh governor to ensure that the government representatives directly purchased wheat from growers at the official rate of Rs300 per 40kg.

He said that a sense of deprivation had prevailed in Sindh and other small provinces and that the army was considered an alien force, specially in Sindh. He added that he had issued orders to recruit youths from Sindh in the army, rangers and coast guards to dispel that impression.

About the prevailing water shortage, the president said that the government was spending Rs14 billion on the Right Bank Outfall Drain project and Rs10 billion on the improvement of the River Indus system so that there was no misuse or seepage of water. Besides, he said, irrigation projects like Reni canal, Sehwan canal and six more canals in Sindh were in the pipeline to improve the water distribution system in the province.

However, he said, these projects were linked to the availability of water and construction of water reservoirs.

LAWYERS GATHERING: Addressing the lawyers community at the opening ceremony of circuit court building of the Sindh High Court here on Saturday, Gen Musharraf urged the judges to be courageous in the face of threats by extremists.