HYDERABAD, Aug 15: People’s Party Parliamentarians information secretary Taj Hyder has said hundreds of party workers have been arrested and implicated in false criminal cases by police in Sindh.

He added that a large number of PPP workers had left their areas, fearing arrests ahead of the local body elections. Talking to journalists at a tea party hosted by party leader Aftab Khanzada at a hotel here on Sunday evening, he said the PPP considered the current phase of its trial and tribulations as a part of its struggle against dictatorship in the country. The PPP, he added, was participating in the elections regardless of results.

He alleged that police had become a part of the pre-poll rigging because they had been committing excesses against people contesting against government-sponsored candidates. He said the Election Commission was demanding evidence of violation of the code of conduct and asked how a man could prove his kidnapping because he did not have a TV reporter with him at the time of being kidnapped.

The PPP leader demanded that the polls should be held under the supervision of the army. He said armed forces should be deployed at polling stations. He maintained that the government needed rigging because it knew that it could not win the elections without applying strong arm tactics. However, he said, these initiatives of the government were bringing a bad name to it.

He said the PPP had decided that those who had ditched the party temporarily would be kept out of it permanently, adding that the party had got strengthened after these elements had left the party.

Mr Hyder said the party cadre would resist the current wave of atrocities against them.

Answering a question about former Karachi city nazim Niamatullah Khan’s call for formation of a commission against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he said the PPP had submitted a report in the Supreme Court regarding training camps of the MQM in India and its other objectionable activities. He said the report also contained a file prepared by the GHQ which was still on the record of the apex court and there was no need of a commission. He alleged that the rulers had formed a coalition with those declared agents to block the path of democracy. He said a senior commander was a complainant in the Major Kaleem case against Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad.

The PPP leader said there were instances of wrong decisions in any party but people should not break their commitments after not being awarded tickets for elections. He added that the rulers stood exposed today because of their anti-people acts.

Party MPA Zahid Bhurgari, Roshan Solangi and Mir Fateh Talpur were also present on the occasion.