KARACHI, Aug 19: The Sindh National Front has reiterated its call for replacing the “highly centralized federal system” by a confederal system, saying that the “dictatorship of Islamabad, civilian or military, has no place in the concept of Pakistan.”

This was expressed at a meeting of the executive committee of the SNF, held here under the chairmanship of its head, Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, which reviewed the current political situation in the context of the forthcoming general elections.

The meeting described the centre as a hand made entity consisting only of bureaucracy, politicians and generals, saying that the present setup in no way solves the problems faced by the provinces.

The SNF firmly believed that as in the past elections, the coming election will, instead of doing good, create new problems for the country.

The committee called upon the government to save the country by holding elections for a new constituent assembly and enacting a new constitution based on the promise contained in the Pakistan resolution.

Despite its reservations — the SNF being a political party — has decided to participate in the current political process in the country and to contest on limited seats.

The meeting expressed its dissatisfaction over the decision making of the National Alliance, which it said up to now has not been able to produce a list of mutually agreed candidates for the elections.

“In fact, this has become a very difficult process, as there seem to be parallel authorities dealing with the matter,” it observed.

Whereas the Sindh Democratic Alliance (SDA), which is not a party but a collection of individual waderas, has allocated constituency nominees throughout Sindh without any accommodation for others in the alliance, it noted.

The SNF said it did not recognize the SDA as a master of Sindh. In fact, there are only two or three waderas in the whole group who are capable of winning their seats, it added.

The meeting expressed the view that it has joined the National Alliance as a separate party with roots throughout Sindh, and is not prepared to compromise that status even if it means leaving the National Alliance.

The SNF central committee also expressed its concern over the continuing acute water crisis in Sindh.

The committee emphatically stated that absentee politicians, who have run away from the country to save themselves from corruption charges have no right to reappear on the political scene and try to fool the people into voting for them so that they could continue with their misdeeds.