KARACHI, July 18: The Pakistan People's Party has expressed reservations over, what it alleged, the use of state machinery by Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim in the Tharparkar by-election process.

In a press release issued on Sunday, PPP legislators said that the state machinery was being used to harass the PPP candidate taking part in the by-election. "The chief minister has gone so overboard that he is showing even members of minorities as PML activists," they added.

ANNIVERSARY: Leaders, activists and supporters of PPP and People's Students Federation observed the death anniversary of Shahnawaz Bhutto, youngest son of the PPP founder and executed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, at the People's Secretariat here on Sunday, adds PPI.

Speaking on the occasion, leaders of PPP and PSF paid rich tributes to Shahnawaz Bhutto and said that he had been poisoned to death for his struggle against a dictator and for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

PPP city chief Haji Muzaffar Shajrah, Habib Junedi, Rashid Rabbani, Latif Mughal, Rahil Iqbal, Iftikhar Qazi, Arshad Naqvi and others were among the speakers. They criticized the government for pursuing anti-people policies.

Saying that the PPP is a party of martyrs, they vowed to continue the struggle for the restoration of democracy in the country. On this occasion, it was announced that "the current year is the year the Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan'.

It was also announced that the party would take out a rally from Bilawal House to Jail Road on July 22 on the occasion of Munawar Suhrawardi's chehlum. Mr Suhrawardi's was assassinated in Karachi last month.

The speakers also demanded arrest of the killers of MPA Abdullah Murad and Suhrawardi. Earlier, Quran Khwani was held for the departed soul of Shahnawaz Bhutto.