THATTA, Jan 12 Senior leaders and legislators of the Pakistan People's Party and the party's low-ranking office-bearers are clearly split on ousting the district police officer, with former praising him and the latter demanding his removal.

MPA Humera Alwani, MPA Rukhsana Shah, Advisor to CM on Coastal Highway Ghulam Qadir Malkani, PPP Sindh Council's member Aijaz Ali Khwaja, former MNA Babu Ghulam Hussain and a number of senior party leaders expressed satisfaction on the performance of police department and called for developing congenial relations between state machinery and party workers.

They distanced themselves from a meeting presided over by the party's Thatta president, Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon, and attended by PPP's taluka presidents on Monday, which demanded removal of DPO Sultan Ahmed Khwaja, and said that none of them had been invited to it.

They said that since the meeting was held without taking them into confidence it carried no weight and showered praise on the DPO. Since he had taken over the charge, Sultan Khwaja, had brought down crime rate in the district, they said.

They said that he had made highways safe even during the night and the commuters now felt secure in travelling within the district under night patrolling by police.

They said that it was need of the hour that the party activists and leaders cooperated with state machinery so that grievances of common man could be redressed.

But the party's district leadership did not agree with its leaders and elected representatives. It said in a press release that the party demanded at a meeting replacement of DPO Sultan Khwaja by DPO Fida Mastoi due to rising graph of crime and police atrocities.

DPO Sultan Khwaja denied charges and said that he was not with any particular group and he was serving the district without any discrimination. However, he would not accept any political intervention in routine official work, he said.