SUKKUR, Dec 16: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has announced that the Dec 27 gathering at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh to remember Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto on her death anniversary would be a historic event as several million people from across the country would pay respect to the great politician.
Speaking at a meeting of the PPP Sukkur division at the residence of Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah here on Sunday, he said that PPP had staged many public meetings greater than the one organised by a rival party in Hyderabad recently, adding that PPP had its programme and performance and not public meetings that would enable it to retain powers in the upcoming general elections.
The opposition forces, he said, had nothing to show to the public and, therefore, it was doing politics of criticising the PPP in their electioneering.
Mr Shah said that the parties that had ruled over the country since 1986 until rejected by the masses did nothing for Sindh and its people but the same parties had now been seeking powers to resolve issues of Sindh. He claimed that during its current tenure, the PPP served all provinces equally. Referring to the recent Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) public meeting in Hyderabad, the chief minister said it was no challenge to the PPP, adding that the party did not compete with others on the basis of a show of strength. “What we have done over the past four-and-a-half years could not be done by other over the four decades,” he claimed, and said that the party was answerable only to the masses.
Earlier, the meeting reviewed arrangements of the Benazir Bhutto death anniversary events at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh.
PPP ministers, lawmakers and party office-bearers from Sindh including Jam Mehtab Dahar, Saifullah Dharejo, Haji Anwer Khan Mahar, Mehreen Bhutto, Abdul Haque aka Mian Mitho, Nafeesa Shah, Rai Naz Bozdar, Noman Islam Shaikh, Mushtaque Surhio, Dr Arshad Mughal attended the meeting.
Our Khairpur correspondent adds: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah inaugurated a thalassaemia centre, blood bank and haematology centre at the district administration’s health facility in Khairpur on Sunday.
Speaking at the ceremony, he lauded the Fatimid Foundation for establishing such medical centres in an area where such facilities were not available to the people of upper Sindh. He noted that a large number of people hailing from Khairpur, Sukkur, Naushahro Feroze, Jacobabad and other parts of the region would benefit from the medical facilities.
Fatimid Foundation chairman and former Sindh governor retired Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider told the audience that the machinery, equipment and furniture worth Rs12 million had been made available by to the Khairpur medical centre. Khairpur Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Abbas Baloch also spoke.