HYDERABAD, Feb 5: The Pakistan People’s Party leader Abdul Latif Ansari has demanded that elections should be held under the supervision of army to avoid bloodshed, especially in Dadu, Thatta, Larkana, Jacobabad and Pano Aqil.

He said at a news conference at the press club that the government should appoint an inquiry committee to find out who had given orders to wash off vital evidence from the crime scene in Liaquat Bagh where Ms Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Dec 27. Fire brigade vehicles washed off evidence just a few hours after the deadly attack. It was also necessary to find out if Baitullah Mehsood or Al Qaeda had masterminded the attack or someone from within was responsible for Benazir’s assassination, he said.

He suggested putting two PPP lawyers from among Aitzaz Ahsan, Farooq Naik, Latif Khoso or Babar Awan on the proposed inquiry committee and demanded that the investigation of the case should be handed over to the United Nations.

When Benazir saw that terrorism had spread its tentacles to Islamabad from Waziristan, Peshawar, Swat and Mardan, she considered it her responsibility to return to save the country, she said.

The former senator said that if elections were not held in a free, fair and transparent manner it would endanger the very existence of the country.

Pre-polls rigging had already been done with the bifurcation of Hyderabad, Dadu, Larkana and Jacobabad districts as well as through the nazims’ elections, he said.

Mr Ansari held the establishment responsible for weakening the country politically and economically as the army had ruled the country directly for 35 years and indirectly for 25 years. A list had been issued at that time containing the names of people who had opened bank accounts in foreign countries, he said.

Ten per cent of the people on that list were politicians whereas 90 per cent were bureaucrats, businessmen and army officers but no action was ever taken against them, he said.

He said that Sindh had played a key role not only in the creation but also in the preservation of Pakistan but it had to put up with step-motherly treatment. Benazir had realised the impending power crisis as far back as 1988 and approved certain schemes for power generation but her opponents shelved them on various grounds, he said.

He said that the lands irrigated by Guddu and Ghulam Mo hammad barrages were handed over to non-Sindhis at a throwaway price.

Despite producing 70 per cent of the country’s oil and gas Sindhis were deprived of employment, he said.

The Sindh Assembly was the only forum which adopted Pakistan Resolution in 1937 while the NWFP held a referendum and the Punjab was being ruled by a unionist government, he recalled.

He said that Balochistan had joined Pakistan in 1948 when Khan of Kalat signed an agreement with Quaid-i-Azam. He said that Sindhis and Urdu-speaking people settled in Sindh had rendered tremendous sacrifices for the country and demanded that all the provinces should be given their just rights.

Mr Ansari said that five weeks had passed since Benazir’s assassination but the investigation teams were still clueless about the perpetrators. Benazir had struggled for 30 years to complete the mission of her illustrious father. She had seen her father and two brothers martyred, had been incarcerated and compelled to go into exile, he said.

The member of PPP Sindh Council Mirza Ashiq Hussain Baig, senior vice-president of PPP Hyderabad, Amanullah Siyal, Ghulam Mustafa Veesar and Aftab Khanzada were also present at the news conference.