HYDERABAD: Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah
has said that political forces should demonstrate unity and coherence as
the ongoing confrontation would not benefit democracy at a time when
Pakistan is facing a threat of terrorism.
He was
speaking at a press conference at the residence of Hyderabad division
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) president Syed Ali Nawaz Shah on Wednesday.
Expressing concerns over the prevailing conditions, he
said that although the army chief had attended a briefing of the Senate
committee, still people were concerned about the present situation. He
said Nawaz Sharif was a careless prime minister and least concerned
about the government and people. Had there been development in his
tenure, people would not have been blaming him, he said.
He
said Nawaz Sharif was the first person in the country who became
unpopular despite being in the government. He said Nawaz neglected Sindh
and never fulfilled a single promise he made with the province.
He
said Sindh had given too much honour to Nawaz Sharif and got the Thar
coal project inaugurated by him. But he failed to honour commitments he
made regarding Tharparkar and Karachi, he added.
Launching
movements as hinted by Sharif was not easy, he said, adding that it was
only Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who had launched real
movements. Comparing Nawaz with Asif Zardari, he said the latter had
political acumen.
He said political forces must believe
in harmony despite having separate ideologies and programmes. One should
not talk about things that reflected despondency, he said.
He
said the people of Sindh knew the “spent forces” while the PPP’s
leadership was strong. Had the PPP not been interested in democracy, a
bill on delimitation could not have been adopted in the upper house, he
said.
He said the Grand Democratic Alliance leaders
formed the government with dictators’ help and after assuming power,
they forgot the masses. He said the rural areas of Sindh witnessed
14-hour power outages despite the federal government’s claim that
load-shedding had been ended.
About the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, he said millions of people would attend the event on Dec 27.
He
said Sindh’s growers should not show haste considering the fact that
the Sindh government had already notified sugar cane price of Rs182 per
40kg and sugar mills had started crushing sugar cane. However, he said
they had every right to protest.
He said Imran Khan had
staged a sit-in for six months, but it was like much ado about nothing.
He said the sit-in had become a culture now. He said the public meetings
of Imran Khan in Sindh perhaps had blessings of “angels or God’s
support”.
