PPP to contact nationalist parties to get support for anti-PTI govt drive: Khuhro

The Pakistan Peoples Party has decided to contact the Sindhi nationalist parties and other such political forces having no representation in the parliament to get their support for its ongoing agitation drive against the federal government.

Speaking at a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building on Friday, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had issued directives to contact the Sindhi nationalist parties and other political forces to win their support for the protest campaign against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government.

Khuhro said he would meet the Sindhi nationalist parties’ leaders in this regard. He said the unity of all political forces, whether having representation in the parliament or not, was necessary “to get rid of the present government”.

He alleged that the federal government had been attempting to snatch the autonomy granted to the provinces. He said an attempt was being made to usurp the island and natural resources of Sindh but “we would never surrender autonomy and rights of the province”.

Khuhro said only empowered provinces could guarantee an empowered Centre. “But the present government wants to strengthen the federation only.” He said the federation should ensure fair distribution of resources among the provinces to empower them. The PPP leader said the government had weakened the federation of Pakistan and caused hatred among the provinces.

He said the PPP had recently held a meeting with the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan to remind “the rival political party that the population census is not just the issue of Karachi but that of the entire Sindh and that all political parties of the province are concerned about this problem”.

He said the population of the province had been counted less than the actual count in the last census. He said Sindh had been deprived of its due share in the provincial quota of the federal government’s jobs.

Khuhro said Sindh would not accept such injustices in the governance issues any more. He said scholarship opportunities would be secured from the federal government for the graduates of Sindh for their higher education abroad.

He said the Sindh government would provide more opportunities for vocational training to youths of the province to make them eligible to earn their livelihood. To a question, he said so far no decision had been taken by the Pakistan Democratic Movement to submit to the speaker the resignations submitted by the lawmakers of its component parties.

He said the lawmakers of the PPP, while acting upon the deadline of December 31 set by the PDM, had submitted their resignations to the party leadership.