DADU, July 31: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner to take notice of arrests of Awam Dost Panel candidates in the district.

It called for a ban on entry of Federal Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi in the district for allegedly using the government machinery and police against ADP candidates to change their loyalties.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, PPP MNA Raees Rafiq Ahmad Jamali, Zafar Ali Leghari, Syed Ghulam Shah Jilani, Talat Mahessar and Ghulam Shabbir Ahmad Abro alleged that on directives of the minister, the Dadu police were raiding houses of ADP candidates in the district.

They alleged that police raided the house of Rafiq Ahmad Zardari, an ADP candidate for the seat of nazim of the Betto Jatoi union council, and arrested him. They said the candidate was being forced to withdraw from the contest. They said police were not disclosing the whereabouts of the candidate who had been arrested two days ago.

They also accused police of raiding houses of a candidate for the seat of naib nazim of Neo Goth, Koro Agro, candidates for councillors’ seats of Shah Panjo, Akbar Chandio and Bashir Lakhair and a candidate for the seat of councillor of Qari Arif, Illahi Bux, and arresting them. They were also being pressured to change their loyalties, the PPP leaders said.

They further alleged the Thrari Mohabbat police raided the house of a candidate for the seat of naib nazim of Butra, Ashraf Bhurgari, tortured women and detained Ashraf Bhurgari. They said Mr Bhurgari was later released.

The PPP leaders said the Kakar police raided the house of a candidate for the naib nazim’s seat, Amir Bux Qambrani, and a candidate for councillor’s seat, Liaquat Khoso. They said police arrested them to force them to change their loyalty.

They said the Khairpur Nathan Shah police raided the house of PPP leader Ramzan Khoso, implicated him in a false case and arrested his relatives Sarwar and Liaquat Ali.

The leaders observed that if the harassment of candidates continued, the law and order situation in the area would worsen.

They demanded that the president and the Chief Election Commissioner should take notice of alleged police excesses against ADP candidates.

POLLS: A total of 199 nomination papers were filed by candidates for nazims and naib nazims and 1,715 papers for other seats for the local body elections on 52 UC seats of the district.

About 831 candidates for general councillors, 250 for women councillors, 391 for labour and peasant councillor (men), 191 for labour and peasant councillor (women) and 52 candidates for minority councillors submitted their nomination papers in offices of returning officers in Dadu, Johi, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Mehar.

Candidates for UC Chhore Qambar nazim Farman Ali Chandio, and naib nazim Abdul Rasool Khoso of the Dadu Ittehad Panel have unofficially been elected unopposed.

Protest: A large number of farmers of Pyaro Goth waterway originating from the Dadu canal staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Thursday to protest against artificial water shortage in the area.

Daim Leghari, Roshan Shah, Basheer Hingoro and Ibrahim Solangi led the farmers.

Speaking on the occasion, they said irrigation officials were selling water to influential landlords of the Sita Road.

They said Pyaro Goth waterway had desiccated and hundreds of acres of land had been rendered barren.

They said that farmers of the waterway had not cultivated paddy and cotton crop due to an artificial shortage of irrigation water.

They called upon the irrigation secretary to immediately take action against corrupt irrigation officials and provide them due share of water.