LARKANA, Feb 17: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is not afraid of political alliances and fronts because it is satisfied that it has served the nation whenever it came to power. He expressed his confidence that the masses will again vote it to power with even greater majority in the upcoming general elections, and said PPP had become strong enough to defeat any alliance.

Mr Shah was speaking at a gathering held in Qambar on Sunday to welcome the Chandio tribe’s chieftain, Nawab Gaibi Sardar Khan Chandio, to the PPP fold. The Sardar announced joining the Pakistan People’s Party along with his family members, relatives, friends and supporters.

The chief minister criticised rival parties for “trying to deceive the nation”, saying that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif supported the Kalabagh dam project but during his visits to Sindh he always tried to make people believe that his party would not revive the project if it was given another chance to rule over the country. It was PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, who led a mammoth rally and staged a historic sit-in on the Sindh-Punjab border to get the project shelved once and for all, he added.

Mr Sharif, he said, never visited Larkana and Naudero before but was now forced to frequent Sindh because PPP under the leadership of (President) Asif Ali Zardari had routed his party in Sindh.

“Nawaz Sharif cannot understand the politics of President Zardari,” he remarked, and claimed that not a single PML-N man could win any seat in Sindh.

Without naming Mumtaz Bhutto, Mr Shah also criticised him for opposing PPP and Benazir Bhutto and joining the PML-N.

The chief minister recounted PPP’s achievements during all its tenures since 1970 and said its founder chairman, Z. A. Bhutto made the nation a nuclear power and gifted it with the Steel Mills, besides making the country an invincible fort of Islam. He and her great politician daughter, Benazir Bhutto, laid down their lives for the people of Pakistan, Mr Shah said. “Following in the footsteps of the two leaders, we served the nation to the best of our abilities over the past five years and carried out unprecedented development in the country,” he added.

Over Rs70 billion was being spent on different women empowerment programmes while under an unparallel programme of land distribution, thousands of acres had been given to landless women, he said. He announced that within the next two years, the country would not only start producing electricity in abundance with the Thar coal reserves but would also be able to export electricity.

Welcoming Sardar Chandio to the PPP fold, he said his joining the party would have a big impact on the political scenario in the country.

Nawab Gaibi Sardar Khan Chandio is the son of former PPP MNA Nawab Shabbir Ahmed Chandio, who remained the party’s district president of undivided Larkana.

Speaking on the occasion, Sardar Chandio acknowledged the support extended to his tribe by President Asif Ali Zardari and MNA Faryal Talpur for years.

Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Minister for Education and Literacy Pir Mazharul Haq, Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani, Minister for Law Ayaz Soomro, Senator Aijaz Dhamrah and other PPP leaders also spoke.