HYDERABAD, April 3: The chief of the Sindh National Front (SNF), Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, said here on Wednesday that the people of Sindh were facing discrimination at the hands of the rulers and expressed fears that they might adopt the path of revolution.

He was speaking to newsmen at the local circuit house.

Referring to the revolutions of China, Cuba, Russia and France, he said that the situation in Sindh had simply become intolerable and the province had reached at a revolutionary stage.

He said that he was a personal witness to the fact that water was not available even for bathing dead bodies and added that the people were being forced to drink poisonous water and both the human beings and livestock were dying.

He further said, in a meeting, he had personally apprised President General Pervez Musharraf about the alarming situation prevailing in Sindh and told that the people were dying of hunger and thirst and that unemployment was rampant in the province.

He said the president had given him a patient hearing and admitted that the people of Sindh were facing innumerable hardships but nothing was done to ameliorate their sufferings.

The SNF chief said that keeping in view the prevailing situation, his party had decided to unite all forces on one platform to launch a joint struggle to provide succour to the people.

He said that in furtherance of this objective, he would convene a meeting on May 5 and had invited every Sindhi regardless of party affiliations to attend the meeting.

He said it was the duty of each and every Sindhi to raise his voice against the excesses unleashed against the people.

About his extending invitation to the MQM, he said the leadership of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was itself loudly proclaiming that they were Sindhis and had become spokesmen for the rights of the people of Sindh.

About the general elections, Mr Bhutto said that these were of least importance and added that the real issue was the survival of Sindh. “ Who can think about these matters when we are facing “Karbala”, he said.

He said that the rulers were welcomed to hold referendum but who would provide relief to the people facing hunger, unemployment and lawlessness. On what basis would the interested parties go to the voters and ask them to participate in the referendum and elections”, he asked.

About different nationalist parties who were reluctant to play a second fiddle, the SNF chief said that the time for this had passed and added that he was not interested in any office but his only interest was that all the people should unite on one platform for the common cause.

About the PPP, he said that he had already extended personal invitation to Makhdoom Khaliquzzaman and Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman and would personally request Makhdoom Amin Faheem to attend the May 5 meeting.

He said although the civilian governments were inefficient and corrupt yet they did pay a little attention to the problems of the people.

He said that the present government was only running after the IMF, the World Bank and the US.

About Ponam, Mr Bhutto said that it was only a name and added that Ponam had become a “SANAM” (a stone idol).

He deplored the genocide of the Palestinian Muslims at the hands of the Jews and regretted that the Muslim world was witnessing these atrocities as a mute spectator and added that this could also happen to some other Muslim country.