SUKKUR, Nov 23: Expressing concern over a reported move to hand over the Shahbaz Airbase in Jacobabad to Nato forces, an all-party conference termed it harmful to solidarity and integrity of the country.

The APC demanded that the government should immediately stop playing with sentiments of the people.

Held at the Jacobabad press club on Thursday, the APC was attended by leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party, Sindh National Front, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Khaksaar Tehrik and Shahree Ittehad.

They warned the government of people’s backlash in case the airbase was handed over to Nato.

They asked the government that it should desist from implementing policies which were against national interests. Terming the present rulers a security risk, they said that during their seven-year tenure, they had carried out orders issued from Washington. The APC leaders maintained that it had become necessary to get rid of the rulers.

They said that President Musharraf, being a general, bowed to a phone call from the US and provided the airbases to the US and its allies for operations against Muslim brethren.

They said that Pakistan had lost its credibility due to negative policies of the rulers. At present, the country was facing the worst crisis, they added.

They said that the army was supposed to protect the borders of the country, but its misuse in Balochistan and Waziristan had generated hatred against it.

They said that the rulers should learn from the Iranian president’s stand on the nuclear issue by defying the West and the United States. The APC also adopted a resolution against army operation in Balochistan and handing over of two islands of Sindh to a UAE-based firm Emaar.

The APC, held under the auspicious of Jamaat-i-Islami, was attended by Abdul Sattar Brohi of PPP, Dr A. G. Ansari of JUI, Nadeem Qureshi of PPP (SB), Maulana Abdul Hafeez Bijarani of MMA, Haji Azeem Khoso of PTI, and Akram Abro of Shahree Ittehad.

SALU: The National Accountability Bureau has started a fresh inquiry into allegations of corruption in the Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, over the past nine years.

A NAB official requesting anonymity told Dawn that a fresh inquiry in this regard has been initiated by the NAB into allegations of corruption of Rs600 millions over the past nine years, from 1997 to 2006.

It may be mentioned that following the corruption charges on the part of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur’s administration, in the sectors of construction, transport, date project and computers, to the tune of Rs600 millions, a citizen of Khairpur Dr Anees Goraya had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court after which the NAB has taken up the case anew. The director-general of the NAB Sindh has summoned a witness, Ismail Khuhro, in Karachi and recorded his statement, after which a new inquiry team has been formed to probe into the matter.

He told the court that between 1997 and 2006 embezzlements to the tune of Rs600 millions had been done in the university, including misappropriation of Rs120m collected on the account of increase in yearly fees, but the same amount was not deposited in the account of university.