HYDERABAD, Jan 9 The Sindh National Front has said that the country will disintegrate if mid-term elections are not held because the present rulers are inefficient, incompetent and weak.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Friday, the general secretary of the party, Mohammad Ayoub Shar, alleged that SNF chief Mumtaz Ali Bhutto was not arrested on the complaint of the editor of a Sindhi newspaper but to settle personal scores.

He was arrested because the SNF had held a series of demonstrations against an inordinate delay in the arrest of murderers of Benazir Bhutto which had annoyed the rulers, Mr Shar alleged.

He alleged that the same people were responsible for the murder of Benazir Bhutto who had killed Mir Murtaza Bhutto.

The rulers had lost their sense of proportion and had become panicky as Mr Bhutto had vowed to expose the murderers of Benazir Bhutto, Mr Shar alleged.

He said that the Awami Awaz episode was used by the rulers to arrest the SNF chief. “If the rulers are so sensitive about freedom of press and issuance of threats to journalists, why have they not ensured arrest of the killers of some journalists,” he asked.

He said that recently a journalist, Azeem Laghari, was murdered in the hometown of the senior Sindh minister in Dadu but the minister took no notice of the murder.

He conceded that SNF activists had visited the office of daily Awami Awaz to lodge a peaceful protest against the newspapers' partisan attitude but said that they had neither issued any threats nor damaged anything at the office.

“The murderers of October 18 and May 12 are roaming about freely and no action has been taken against them but the rulers were very prompt in getting Mumtaz Bhutto arrested on the very next day of the alleged attack and then transporting him to Karachi by plane,” he said.

He claimed that Mr Bhutto had been booked under section 109, PPC, (abetment) for which the presence of the accused at the scene of the offence was necessary and added that Mr Bhutto was present in his village in Larkana district on that day.

He said at Sukkur airport, police resorted to violence on SNF activists and arrested many workers. He paid tribute to the judiciary for releasing 39 activists on personal bonds in Sukkur, sending Mr Bhutto to a hospital and then releasing him on bail next day.

Mr Shar said that the SNF held the press and journalists in high esteem and therefore the question of issuing threats to them did not arise.

He said that the rulers had failed on all fronts and had created crisis after crisis.

He said that after Jan 12, the SNF chief would undertake a tour of Sindh to launch a struggle to press for the arrest of the murderers of Ms Bhutto.

INTERVIEWS

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Hyderabad has announced that tests/interviews for the posts of PA to the secretary, junior clerk, data-entry operator, typist, Daftari, book binder, electrician, CMO, driver, plumber, ground man, peon, gardner and watchman, which were scheduled to be held on January 12 and 13, have been postponed.