SUKKUR, Nov 26: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Sunday dismissed reports about his party likely to enter into an election alliance with Pakistan People’s Party, and said no such proposal was under consideration.
PPP’s support for women’s rights bill did not mean that Pakistan Muslim League and PPP were going to join hands for next general elections, he said while talking to newsmen at Sukkur airport.
Mr Rahim said that the 2007 general elections would be free and fair and claimed that the PML, which had deep roots in masses, would emerge victorious throughout the province.
The free and fair by-elections in Shikarpur had proved that the opposition’s hue and cry about large-scale rigging by ruling party was mere propaganda, he said.
PPP was in the habit of crying foul after it lost an election and declaring it free and fair after it won, he said.
To a question about Imtiaz Shaikh’s resignation, he said that he was not the cause of his resignation. (The cause) was rejection by people of Shikarpur who rejected him and his brother in the by-elections for PS-11, he said, adding that neither he nor his government had a hand in his brother’s defeat.
Commenting on Pir Sahib Pagaro’s statement that his party would rather ally with PPP than PML, Mr Rahim said that he respected him as an elder. “It’s his personal thinking, but I hope Pir Saheb will continue supporting the PML,” he added.
About a possible election alliance with Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the chief minister said that the MMA had fallen prey to internal differences. “Sometimes they talk about resignations while at other times they refuse to do so. It is, therefore, illogical and out of question to have an elections alliance with MMA,” he said.
SECURITY: The administration had taken rather over-strict security measures during the chief minister’s visit with all the roads from airport to Old Sukkur sealed off for hours.Police personnel deployed along the route did not even allow cyclists to use the route taken by CM’s motorcade, which led to scuffles between people and police at many places.
The chief minister soon after his arrival at Sukkur airport went to Yousuf Mosque on Sukkur-Shikarpur Road where he offered zuhr prayers, had lunch and passed three hours at a "Tablighi Ijtima".
He then drove to Old Sukkur where he paid a visit to a Pir Hussain Bux Chohan.
A little panic greeted the CM on his way back when a woman suddenly jumped in front of CMs’ Landcruiser near Minara Road forcing Sukkur District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah who was driving the vehicle to apply brakes.
The sudden impact caused all the vehicles in the motorcade to bump into each other.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.