HYDERABAD, March 22: Leaders of the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, Pakistan Oppressed Nations’ Movement and other political parties have demanded that five million illegal immigrants living in Sindh be expelled, the Khokhropar border should remain closed and the Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal canal projects be abandoned.

They were speaking at the 14th anniversary of the founding of the STPP in Qasimabad here on Monday night.

The public meeting adopted 18 resolutions, demanding an end to the military operation in Balochistan and holding of elections for a new constituent assembly for drafting a new constitution guaranteeing equal rights for all the nations.

Another resolution demanded the signing of a new social contract in the light of the 1940 resolution, guaranteeing autonomy to provinces.

It further demanded that cases against Nawab Akbar Bugti, Akhtar Mengal and other Baloch leaders and workers be withdrawn and those involved in a criminal assault on a lady doctor in a Sui hospital be punished.

Yet another resolution demanded that provinces be given control over their resources, the increase in prices of oil withdrawn and the Sindhi language made a compulsory subject in private schools of Sindh.

In his speech, STPP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi alleged that the cities of Sindh had been handed over to terrorists and rural areas to bandits.

He said that people from other provinces were devouring resources of Sindh while the local people could not get jobs even as watchmen in oil and gas fields in the province.

He said that the aim of constructing the Kalabagh dam and the Greater Thal canal was to starve the Sindhi people.

He took pledge from the participants to launch a relentless struggle against the excesses.

The chief of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, Mehmood Achakzai, in his speech said that since the inception of Pakistan, the country’s affairs had been run by officials belonging to a particular province as a result government policies, including foreign policy, had failed and institutions destroyed.

The chairman of the Tehrik-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, called upon the people to launch a joint struggle for an undiluted democracy and justice.

Others who spoke on the occasion included intellectual Mohammad Ibrahim Joyo, Sindh National Front leader Gul Mohammad Jakhrani, Sindh Sagar Party leader Maulana Azizullah Bohio and Sindh Hari Committee chairman Azhar Jatoi.