HYDERABAD, July 30: Lea-ders of various political parties on Saturday rejected the proposed formation of the city district government for Hyderabad on the ground that it was tantamount to breaking Sindh.

They said that the plan preapared by the Sindh government was aimed only at appeasing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

They were speaking at a big rally held in the city on the call of the Citizen Action Committee of the Sindh Democratic Forum.

The rally began from a hotel on the Jail Road and culminated at the press club.

Participants of the rally tore portraits of MQM chief Altaf Hussain at the Tilak Incline, Hyder Chowk and Kohinoor roundabouts.

The participants, including women and children, carried flags of their parties. They raised slogans against the Sindh and district governments and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, described the plan as an attempt by the Sindh chief minister to appease MQM leader Altaf Hussain who wanted to collect Rs10 billion from Hyderabad.

He said that the chief minister wanted to divide Sindh for his allies.

He said that in Karachi various villages had been demolished by the city district government of Karachi and the same exercise would be repeated in Hyderabad.

He called upon Sindhis to unite to foil what he called the anti-sindh designs of the MQM.

Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo demanded that MQM chief Altaf Hussain should be arrested through Interpol.

He said that Gen Pervez Musharraf was an unconstitutional ruler of the country. Rejecting the city government plan for Hyderabad, he said that immigrants had been settled in Sindh as if it was an orphanage.

He dubbed all Sindhis who were siding with the MQM as “traitors” and “national enemies”.

He said that time had come for Sindhis to discharge the debt they owed to the motherland.

Senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro termed the city government a conspiracy of “terrorists” and “extortionists” which had been rejected by people.

He said that the city government plan had been put forward after the division of Hyderabad which would not be accepted. He said the issue would be raised in the Senate.

He said that the people of Sindh would get their rights.

STPP chief Dr Qadir Magsi said that the plan was an attempt to occupy Sindh and not a single village in Karachi was safe today.

He said: “We should not be compelled to throw MQM nazims out of cities”.

He said that Sindhis would not let conspirators succeed.

“It is a dream of the people since 1947 to take full control of Sindh and the city government would be of benefit to the MQM and not the people” he said.

PML-N Sindh acting president Saleem Zia said that ever since the creation of the MQM, Sindh had been ruined.

SDF convener Abrar Kazi said that a particular area had been handed over to the MQM which was a political bribe in the name of city district government.

He said that the MQM had already occupied Sindh.

PPP MNA Ameer Ali Shah Jamote and MPA Zahid Bhurgari said that it was an attempt to break Sindh which was the land of Bhittai and Qalandar.

SNF leader Ayub Shar, SDF secretary Zulfiqar Halepoto, Sindh Hari Committee leader Azhar Jatoi and Sindh National Council’s Dr Dodo Mahri also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the MQM strongly reacted the destruction of MQM chief’s portraits by participants of the rally.

The zonal in-charge and members of the zonal committee in a joint statement issued here on Saturday night, lashed out at the PPP and its supporters for destroying portraits of the MQM chief, looting shops and attacking men and women who were present there.

They said that the PPP was trying to sow seeds of hatred among “heirs of Sindh”.

They said that conspiracies of the PPP and its cronies would be foiled by the people of Sindh.

MQM’s zonal in-charge Siraj Rajput and joint in-charge Nadeem Shaikh on receipt of information about the destruction of MQM chief’s portraits on the Tilak Incline rushed to the spot and pacified angry people of the area.