SUKKUR: The Sindh United Party (SUP) convened Sindh Qaumi Conference in Jacobabad to identify various threats to Sindh and expressed concern over dacoit rule in riverine areas, abduction of poor labourers and innocent children for ransom and complete breakdown of law and order in the province.

The party’s president Syed Zain Shah, who chaired the conference, said the Feb 8 general election was fake as it allowed Pakistan Peoples Party to control Sindh with the help of establishment. Under a conspiracy, Sindh’s lands, islands and heritage had been stolen and unrest and drugs were being spread in the province, he said.

He said that Sindh had been handed over to PPP and the centre had been given to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and PPP under a pre-polls deal.

He feared PPP was going to lease out Sindhi’s assets such as water, sea, coastline, national recourses and land to foreign and local companies. Sindh’s MNAs and MPAs and MQM were part of this deal, he said.

He said that they definitely wanted development and prosperity of the country but “we are not ready to hand over mineral resources of Sindh to foreign companies.”

Addressing a similar Sindh Qaumi Conference in Larkana, Zain Shah said the rigged election process had given birth to a host of questions about its transparency. The world had witnessed how the elections had been held and results prepared, he said.

He termed it a robbery on the rights of millions of people which had thrown Sindh into a quagmire of unemployment, battered law and order situation and starvation.

He demanded ensuring equal rights on resources and the right to rule as envisaged in the 18th Amendment and repatriating aliens to their countries. “We are determined to safeguard our land. We will join alliances to block possibilities of rigging and manipulation of polls. We will also work to foil such conspiracies,” he said.

Dr Safdar Abbasi, general secretary of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), said that GDA and its allies proved that the alliance was an alternative to PPP in Sindh and dented invincibility of PPP.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024