NAUSHAHRO FEROZE, Feb 16: The prospect of a free, fair and transparent general election taking place in Sindh is getting bleaker by the day, said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Syed Zafar Ali Shah on Saturday.

He said that the government seemed adamant on using official machinery and privileges to tilt the results in its favour.

Speaking at a press conference in Darbelo, Kandiaro taluka, Naushahro Feroze district, Zafar Ali Shah, who jumped ship to the PML-N from the Pakistan People’s Party a week ago, said that there has been a flood of transfers of government officers at divisional, sub-divisional, district and taluka levels.

He said that verdict of the apex court that public funds were not to be used for publicity of government leaders was being openly violated by publishing advertisements in newspapers with celebrities praising the performance of the Sindh government.

Mr Shah said that even universities were not immune to political pressure and for the past several months appointments were being made without advertising posts or following the due selection process.

He called for revoking all employment orders for government jobs made in the last couple of months, with a only a few exceptions, and setting up a special committee to verify their merits and the procedure followed for awarding jobs.

The PML-N leader said that revoking job orders and ‘undoing wrongs of the present government’ would be a difficult job even in the presence of a caretaker government and the Election Commission would have to be especially proactive to achieve it.

He said that it seemed probable that the caretaker government in Sindh would be a team chosen by the ruling party in collusion with ‘present’ allies to split cover to for electing an opposition leader.

He also called for stopping the allocation of funds for gas supply and other development schemes, especially those granted by district and taluka administrators.