HYDERABAD, Nov 25: The Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party will launch a campaign after Eidul Azha to highlight various issues confronting the province.

This was stated by STP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi at a press conference held here on Tuesday to apprise the media about decisions taken by the party’s 17th congress.

“The issues to be focussed in the STP’s campaign include: making of Sindhi language compulsory from primary to college levels, ownership of Sindhis of their resources, expulsion of illegal immigrants and recognition of official status of Sindh language in Sindh,” he said.

Dr Magsi said that Pakistani society was facing a situation in which people had been deprived of their fundamental rights. “There should be pure rule of Sindhi people in Sindh and we consider all those Sindhis who arrived here before 1954 regardless of language they speak,” he said.

Others, he added, were illegal immigrants and, therefore, should be treated as such. He said that Sindh had virtually become an international orphanage where six million illegal immigrants, including Bangladeshis, Burmese and Afghans, were living.

About the performance of the present government, Dr Magsi said despite being run by civilians it was not a democratic government because it was following the policies formulated by the previous regime.

He said that Sindh met 60 per cent of oil and 70 per cent of gas requirements of the country and called for its complete control over its resources.

He said that the STP would hold seminars and send memorandums to diplomatic missions, followed by a series of protests, including hunger strikes and rallies.

He said that the government had failed to deliver and the 17th amendment was still there. “How much time is needed to reinstate chief justice (deposed) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry?”, he asked.

He questioned the government’s decision to privatise the Qadirpur gas field and take loan from IMF. He said that Pervez Musharraf had divided Sindh administratively but the present government was doing it in practical terms. He said that formation of the community police for Karachi indicated a conspiracy to separate Karachi from Sindh.

He dismissed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s claims of Talibanisation as a stunt.

Demanding restoration of the commissioner system, he said the local bodies should either be wound up or made subservient to the Sindh assembly and the chief minister.

Newly-elected office-bearers of the STP, including Ali Hassan Chandio and Hyder Shahani, were present at the press conference.