HYDERABAD, Feb 3: Differences have emerged in the Sindh Qaumi Ittehad over reopening of the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail route with four of the seven affiliated parties are opposing it.

A meeting of the seven-party alliance was held here on Friday evening at the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand House.

The Sindh National Council, Jeay Sindh Mahaz (Zain Shah) and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz expressed support for the train service and did not attend the meeting.

Representatives of Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, Sindh National Front, Jeay Sindh Mahaz (Junejo) and some intellectuals discussed the issue.

The parties strongly opposed the reopening of the route and decided to hold a procession on February 13 from Mirpurkhas to the Khokhrapar railway station.

Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting, the STPP chairman, Dr Qadir Magsi, said nationalist parties had strong reservations on the opening of the route although they believed that Pakistan and India should work for peace, harmony and friendship.

He feared that Sindh would be flooded with outsiders as a result of the rail route.

Dr Magsi alleged that Sindh was being treated as an orphanage and four million people from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan and other countries were already living in Karachi illegally.

He criticized the MQM and said it was trying to divide Sindh into two parts.

He claimed that people who had entered Sindh after 1954 were illegal settlers and should be expelled from the province.

Giving a timetable of the protest rally, Dr Magsi said the caravan will leave for the Khokhrapar railway station on February 13 at 9am to stage a sit-in.

He said a public meeting would also be held at Mirpurkhas later.

The STPP chairman said locals would be denied jobs after opening of the route.

Those who attended the meeting and opposed the opening were noted scholar Mohammad Ibrahim Joyo, who represented intellectuals, Gul Mohammad Jakhrani and Ayub Shar of the SNF, Hashim Khoso of the JSM-J and Dr Hameed Memon of the STPP.

Meanwhile, leaders of the dissident parties – Dr Niaz Kalani of the JSQM, Sindh National council leader Punhal Sario and JSM-Z leader Rasool Bux Thebo – told reporters that their parties supported opening of the Khokhrapar route.

They, however, said that outsiders should not be rehabilitated in Sindh.

They claimed that more outsiders had been settled in Sindh after closure of the border in 1965.

They said influx of the outsiders should be stopped and the local people should be given jobs.

The leaders of the Ittehad made it clear that their disagreement would not affect their alliance.