MITHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has described massive corruption and callousness of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rulers as reasons behind the mess in Thar.

Addressing a PTI minority workers’ convention on telephone the other day, Mr Qureshi held Sindh’s rulers responsible for the unabated deaths of infants and pregnant women and increasing suicide incidents in the desert region, saying that they (PPP leaders) had done nothing for Tharis.

He said the PTI had the vision and planning to protect the religious minorities, adding that after coming into power both in the Centre and in Sindh, they would enact new laws to ensure protection of the Hindus and other religious minorities.

Mr Qureshi said that to save his skin after being fully trapped in the mega corruption cases, ousted prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif was trying to malign state institutions.

He said the PTI and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) would trounce the PPP in Thar, announcing that he himself would contest the elections from NA-222.

Mr Qureshi said the desert region was facing a terrible water crisis, but the rulers were busy in staging demonstrations against the water shortage to hide their inefficiency. If Punjab was stealing the water of Sindh, the PPP leaders must take up the issue at proper forums, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI Sindh chapter executive vice president Haleem Adil Shaikh asked participants of the gathering to vote for those who really wanted to bring about a change in their lives.

He urged the officials of mining companies to mend their ways and provide jobs to local people in the various projects of Thar coalfield.

PTI Sindh chapter minority wing president Jay Parkash Ukrani urged members of the Hindu community to join hands with the PTI to drive out the “looters” from Thar and other parts of Sindh.

Others who also spoke on the occasion included Chanesar Arisar, Faqir Arshad Kumbhar, advocate Bhagwandas Bheel, Khan Sahib Akbar Palli, Partab Meghwar and Saeed Khan Chandio.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2018