MIRPURKHAS, July 7: Opposition leader in Sindh Assembly and president of theSindh PPP, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has said that the PPP will take part in the important contest in the NA-229 Tharparkar 1 constituency.
He was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday night at the Jilani House here. He said that despite the rigging in the 2002 general elections, the PPP candidate had acquired 38,000 votes from this constituency, and if the by-election was held in a fair manner then the decision of the people of Thar would be in favour of the PPP.
He alleged that Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was using the language of a dictator, and threats were being issued to elect Shaukat Aziz unopposed, A law and order situation was being created and a social boycott of PPP candidates was being call for, he said.
He said that the claim of electing Shaukat Aziz unopposed has failed as the nomination forms of Muhammad Moeen Bajeer, the general secretary of the PPP at Diplo has been submitted, and tomorrow the nomination forms of Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani, Engineer Gianchand and other candidates would be filed.
He further said that after the scrutiny of the documentation, a final decision about whom the party ticket will be given to, will be made. He said that Shaukat Aziz was at this time a federal minister but was using a government aeroplane, helicopter and government machinery to get elected, even though under Election Commission rules, he should resign from his ministry just as in the 2002 general election, when Arbab Ghulam Rahim and other ministers had taken part in the election after handing in their resignations.
He said that recently at Karachi during the by-elections, the Election Commission had imposed a ban on the entry of ministers and advisors in the premises of polling stations, so therefore the same sort of ban should be imposed in the Tharparkar 1 and Attock constituencies.
Nisar Khuhro said that after being made to vacate the NA-229 Tharparkar 1 seat, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim had become disturbed and had started using contemptible language.
He said that the Sindh chief minister was saying that the PPP was taking part in this constituency without any reason. He said that Arbab Rahim should remember that he had himself has been elected as a PPP candidate before, on a PPP ticket, in 1993 from this very same constituency.
Later a meeting of the PPP's Sindh Council was held. The meeting reviewed the preparations for the election campaign and selection of the PPP candidate to contest in the NA-229 constituency. PPP Sindh President Khuhro, General-Secretary Rashid Rabbani, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Nawab Yousuf Talpur and others attended the meeting.