SUKKUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice chairman and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that time has come for people of Sindh to strengthen PTI’s hands and rid the province of Zardari and his coterie of tyrant feudal lords who have plundered public resources.

He was speaking to media persons and supporters as the party’s ‘Huqooq-i-Sindh March’ made stopovers in Kandhkot, Jacobabad and Shikarpur on Sunday.

Besides, Mr Qureshi, PTI’s provincial president and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi as well as many central and provincial leaders of the party addressed a large number of marchers at different places along the route.

Mr Qureshi while addressing participants in the march in the three towns said that they had come out to correct the wrongs done to people of Sindh by “Zardari group”, who had ruined the province in its 15-year rule, and hold them accountable for their crimes.

He urged people to rise against the excesses and exploitation by the group and make PTI candidates successful during 2023 general election as people in other provinces did during the last general election. “You have to listen to the voice of your conscience,” he said.

He told the people that no one had ever thought that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz would be dislodged from Punjab’s provincial government but PTI did it with the support of people and “buried PML-N and PPP” in the province.

“The time has come for people of Sindh to stand by PTI and rid the province of Zardari group and the yoke of tyrant feudal lords who have plundered Sindh,” he said, adding that Zardari and his group had always rigged elections in Sindh to deprive people of their fundamental rights.

Talking to people in Shikarpur, Mr Qureshi said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the man of character and his daughter Benazir Bhutto was a fine lady, but now Zardari had firmed up his grip on their party. PPP indulged in politics of hatred in Sindh, he said.

Issuing a warning to local administration of Larkana, he said: “Don’t create any hurdle at the behest of the Sindh government. It is pathetic that a sensible minster of Sindh has used uncivilised language against Imran Khan who is a decent person,” he said.

He said that how could a man like Imran Khan be a fraud or corrupt who had developed a charity hospital for people of his country with the help of funds collected all over the world.

Mr Zaidi said that ruling party of Sindh had turned into “dacoits”, who pursued one-point agenda of plundering the province. They had done nothing constructive for the people of Sindh, he said.

He said that PPP members had occupied pricy tracts of land owned by provincial government as well as privately owned land in Sindh. “We have come to people of Sindh to ask them to stand by PTI in its struggle to get corrupt members of PPP to face accountability,” he said.

Speaking to media during a stopover at the house of a party colleague in Sukkur, Mr Qureshi remarked that PPP was no more a party of Benazir Bhutto, it had rather turned into a party of Zardari.

“Law and order situation in Sindh had gone from bad to worse. People are not safe even inside their homes in Karachi. They are harassed at gunpoint and looted and robberies have become a routine matter. Where is the provincial government,” he asked.

He told media persons that they (journalists) knew better than anyone else the law and order conditions in Sindh. It was the prime duty of the provincial government to maintain peace, he said.

“Natural recourses of the province have been plundered and constitutional rights of people have been treaded upon over the 15 long years of PPP rule in Sindh,” he said.

He said that how the PPP, which had utterly failed in performing in Sindh, would be able to do better at the centre and urged people to decide about their destiny by supporting PTI because the party was successfully running governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“How long will people of Sindh be sold off by PPP and how long will people of the province allow PPP to suppress them,” asked Mr Qureshi, adding: “Sindh has played an important role in the creation of Pakistan and now time has come for people to rid themselves of PPP rule.”

“We have come to your doorstep with a message from Imran Khan to support PTI in Sindh to bring about real change and brighten destiny of the province,” he said.

Talking to journalists at a press conference, federal minister Zaidi said that the Sindh government had not done any constructive work over its 15-year rule. “Chief ministers, provincial ministers, lawmakers and members of PPP have become richer by devouring funds of the development of infrastructure of health, education and irrigation in Sindh,” he said.

He said the Sindh government had ruined farmers and growers by creating artificial crisis of urea in the province. People of Sindh were looking for flour, sugar and edibles, which had been stocked up in warehouses and other private places but PPP government had not taken any action against people involved in hoarding, he said.

He said that PPP under leadership of Zardari had made record corruption and even chairman of the National Accountability Bureau had to admit that NAB had recovered Rs10 billion and still Rs19bn was to be recovered.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2022