KARACHI, Sept 23: Cracks have appeared in the Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee in Sindh and it seems that all is set for defection of the Sindh National Front from the committee.
The Front, led by Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, has developed differences with the Pakistan Peoples Party, which according to the SNF, is utilising the committee platform for promotion of party leadership rather than to attain the objective of the committee.
The SNF Information Secretary, Mohammad Ayub Sher, told Dawn that the executive committee of the Front, which met in Larkana on Sept 14, had taken notice of the speeches and slogans raised by the PPP leaders and workers in the rallies being organized in different Sindh cities, to protest against the construction of Greater Thal Canal.
In these rallies, he alleged, the PPP speakers instead of confining themselves to one-point agenda of the committee, had used the platform for projecting party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari.
Mr Sher said that in the light of the decision of the SNF Executive Committee, a letter had been sent to the chairman of the AGTC action committee, Mr Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, who was also the PPP Sindh chief, protesting over the violation of the one-point agenda of the committee and informing him that if in future the AGTC platform was used by the PPP leader for campaigning return of Benazir Bhutto and release of Asif Zardari, the Front would be justified to disassociate itself from the committee.
When views of PPP Sindh chief Nisar Khuhro were sought on this development, he declined to comment in this regard saying that he had not yet received any letter from the SNF or any other members of the action committee. However, Mr Khuhro denied using the committee platform for projecting any other objective except pursuing its one-point agenda. As far as mentioning of the PPP chairperson in speeches was concerned, her name was referred only in context of Gen Perez Musharraf, who had been taking advantage of the vacuum of the popular leadership in the country by raising the issues like Legal Framework Order, he added.