HYDERABAD – PML-F leader Imtiaz Sheikh has reiterated his party’s resolve to continue protest against the Sindh People’s Local Government Act.
The party has planned to observe November 30 as black day and stage a peaceful strike against the PPP ministers’ misbehaviour and use of non-parliamentary language against the PML-F women legislators, he said while talking to media before chairing a meeting of his party here the other day. PML-F leaders Jam Madad Ali, MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, Muhammad Ali Shah Jamote and Kashif Nizamani also attended the meeting.
Shaikh said that his party has appealed to all the people to keep their businesses and educational institutions closed on Nov 30 to add a voice to the protest against the conduct of the PPP ministers. “The PPP has forgotten its own conduct in opposition and when its members used to stand on chairs and throw files at the face of finance minister,” he said. He said that the PML-F was being subjected to victimisation and rejected claims that Pir Pagara was being misguided over the LG law issue. “The party has taken a principled stand against the law and the movement would continue till the law is repealed. It’s actually a matter of grave concern for Sindh and we can’t wait.
We’ve put it off only during Muharram,” he argued. He said if the law were so good why it had not been imposed in the entire province and why only five divisional headquarters had been chosen to implement it.
“The law will create a new province or to be more exact, five new provinces,” he said adding that he had held meetings with the Sindh Bachayo Committee members in Jamshoro. “We were denied the right to protest even inside the assembly. We haven’t yet started opposition in the house as we haven’t been allotted seats yet,” he said. He said that the PML-F and Sindh Bachayo Committee had dissociated themselves from a constitutional petition filed by SBC member Mr Zamir Ghumro, because they believed the issue was to be decided by people and not by the court.
“We weren’t taken into confidence over the petition. We had decided in the SBC meeting that a consultation should have been made whether a case should be filed in the apex court or not but Mr Ghumro did not consult us and took the decision unilaterally,” he said.
Sheikh said that it was Mr Ghumro’s personal decision. New political alignments were bound to take place before elections and any decision in this regard would be taken by Pir Pagara, he said. He said that police and Rangers have failed to curb violence, unabated targeted killings and extortion in Karachi over the past four and a half years and, therefore, there is no harm in seeking help from army to restore peace in the metropolis.