MITHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice chairman Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s long march, which has been sponsored by Sindh government, will fizzle out before it reaches Islamabad.

Qureshi said at a large gathering of supporters after the party’s ‘Huqooq-i-Sindh March’ reached Mithi on Thursday that PTI’s march would reach Karachi on March 6 but signs of panic were already visible in the PPP ranks as PTI flags were being pulled off from poles in Karachi. “Bilawal, don’t panic. It’s just beginning,” he remarked, adding that the days of PPP rule in Sindh were numbered.

He said that no force could deter the PTI from forming government in Sindh after winning election since people of Sindh had been fed up with the corrupt clique long ago.

He warned the province’s police to stop victimising workers and supporters of PTI and other parties at the behest of PPP leaders and behave like public servants. In Tharparkar and Umerkot districts, police officers had implicated PTI workers in cases on false and fabricated charges at the behest of the PPP rulers to force them to change their loyalties, he said.

He said that the federal government had already begun installing reverse osmosis plants to provide safe drinking water in Chhachhro, Dahli and other areas of the desert district while the provincial government had spent billions of rupees in the name of RO plants but people were still forced to drink contaminated water of wells.

He said that despite hindrances created by Sindh government they had provided health cards to each and every Thari so that they could benefit from one of the greatest schemes launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“It is totally immature political move to launch a long march and demand resignation from an elected prime minister after failing to bring opposition parties on one platform,” he added.

He said that things would settle down within next few days after opposition parties failed to achieve their desired results. “It is out of question that PTI lawmakers will betray their leader Imran Khan, who has been leading the nation from the front,” he said.

UMERKOT: Qureshi said in his address at a public meeting at Allah Wala Chowk that PPP rulers must answer what had they done with Rs9000 billion given to Sindh government.

He said that Zardari league conspired to get him defeated in 2013 election when 25 polling stations in his constituency were set on fire. But his victory was that he lived in the heart of Thari people, he said.

He said that opponents lost their senses when PTI distributed health cards among 1.6 million population of Tharparkar despite opposition by Sindh chief minister.

PTI leaders Zain Hussain Qureshi, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Haleem Adil Shaikh, PTI Umerkot district president Dost Mohammad Memon, MNA Lalchand Malhi and others also spoke at the gathering.

MIRPURKHAS: Qureshi said at a press conference at Qureshi farmhouse before leaving for Umerkot that PPP had turned entire Sindh including Karachi into a war zone where armed men were roaming about freely killing innocent people.

He said that during his travel through the province he had seen bodies of tribesmen in Khairpur and Nawabshah and armed men roaming freely to target each other while police were not intervening to stop the bloodshed.

He said in reply to questions that there was no separate Tarin group in PTI, there was only one group of Imran Khan. He hoped PTI lawmakers and allies would stand by their leader and no person could purchase them, he said.

He deplored that PPP workers in Kandiari had tried to stop his caravan and create an ugly situation.

Qureshi said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had accepted prime minister’s challenge to public debate though he alone was enough to talk to Bilawal. But if he announced his representative then he too would make the like arrangements, he said.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2022