SHIKARPUR, Oct 11: The president of the Sindh chapter of the National People’s Party (NPP) and former MNA Dr Ibrahim Jatoi on Thursday led a big rally comprising activists and supporters of the Sindh United Party (SUP), Awami Tehreek (AT), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), besides his own party.

Speaking to the participants in the rally, taken out from Jatoi House, Dr Jatoi accused the Pakistan People’s Party of having threatened the solidarity of the province by getting the Sindh People’s Local Government Act, 2012 through the assembly only to please its coalition partner and perpetuate its rule.

He said the PPP was given full mandate to implement its manifesto formulated by the party’s founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and carried forward by Benazir Bhutto. “But opportunist leaders within the party have compromised on its agenda for their personal interests and brought in the new local government law, which would deprive the people of Sindh of their constitutional rights,” he said.

He warned people of a pre-planned conspiracy being hatched against Sindh and its people. “Delegating extraordinary powers to the office of the Karachi mayor seems to be a move towards driving Sindhi-speaking people from the metropolis,” he said, and apprehended that goths in and around Karachi would be bulldozed and Sindhi population would be pushed out of the city. He appreciated the PPP allies who resisted the new local government law and pulled out of the coalition and said that nationalist and other political and religious parties as well as civil society organizations opposing the law were playing a commendable role by running a sustained protest movement to get it repealed. He also called for the introduction of a consensus local government system for Sindh and said that all stakeholders must be taken on board in this regard.

Abdul Haleem Mahar of the Sindh United Party, Shamshad Memon and Zahid Ghaloo of the Awami Tehreek, Zahid Khan Pahore and Advocate Sanaullah Durrani of the NPP, Faheem Soomro, Ali Hassan Jatoi and others also spoke.