HYDERABAD, Sept 6: Awami Tehrik president Ayaz Latif Palijo has lashed out at moves to reintroduce the local government system and accused PPP leaders of bargaining away rights of Sindhis for the sake of power.

Speaking to journalists at the railway station here on Thursday before leading the Mohabbat-i-Sindh Train March to Islamabad, Mr Palijo said that PPP leaders were busy appeasing the MQM with the new local bodies system.

The AT has organised the march in protest against the local government system, Zulfikarabad project and deteriorating law and order condition in Sindh.

He said the government was not serious in addressing issues of joblessness, loadshedding, lawlessness, water shortage and poverty. The persistent problem of water shortage had destroyed millions of acres of land in Sindh and impoverished thousands of growers, he said.

He said that if the government tried to stop the train march from Karachi cantonment to Islamabad, AT would jam the railway system in Sindh and block all vehicular traffic.

He said that thousands of people, including activists of PML-N, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Sindh United Party (SUP), PPP-SB, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STP) and Jamaat-i-Islami, had joined the march.

He said that after the train march reached Islamabad, a rally would be taken out from the Islamabad Press Club to the parliament on Sept 8 where the participants would stage a sit-in.

He said that division of Sindh was out of the question. The government had initially planned to make Zulfikarabad a city, then declare it a province and finally make it a country with the support of allies and foreign powers but Sindhis would never allow the conspiracy to succeed, he said. Mr Palijo said that education system of the province was in tatters and people of Sindh, which produced 70 per cent of the total gas generated by the country, faced poverty and joblessness.

NAWABSHAH: Mr Palijo said that his party would never accept dual system in Sindh. He was addressing supporters when the train march reached Nawabshah.

He said that PPP wanted to hand over local bodies system to ‘terrorists’ in the name of reconciliation so that target killers could get security of police and revenue departments.

He said that Zulfikarabad was an anti-Sindh project aimed at converting Sindhis into a minority by settling non-Sindhis in the city. If anti-Sindh projects were not shelved they would observe sit-ins on main railway tracks, he warned.

SANGHAR: Mr Palijo said the train march was a protest against conspiracies for Zulfikarabad and division of Sindh.

He was talking to reporters at Tando Adam and Shahdadpur railway stations where a large number of supporters showered rose petals on the participants of the march.

He said that PPP had failed to serve people who voted it to power several times. Instead, it had given them menaces of loadshedding and lawlessness.