Ayaz Palijo's 'Love Sindh' train steams towards Islamabad

Palijo, supporters to stage a protest demonstration outside the Parliament house in Islamabad on September 8.

HYDERABAD: Awami Tehreek's President Ayaz Palijo, who had ruffled a few feathers by holding rallies in Karachi with the infamous Lyari's Amn Committee, embarked upon his Muhabbat-e-Sindh (Love Sindh) train to Islamabad on Thursday.

Having succeeded in quelling the clamour for a Muhajir province through 'Love Sindh' rallies, Palijo is now due to stage a protest outside the Parliament House. The issues on his agenda include the revival of local government system of 2001, targeted killings, Zulfiqarabad project, water shortage, lawlessness, Hindu conversions, corruption and unemployment.

Escorted by hundreds of supporters, emotional scenes of parting and exhilaration embodied by women and girls dancing to Sindhi songs as he made a stopover at Hyderabad railway station. "If the Pakistan Peoples Party rulers remain unperturbed by the march, we will block all the highways of Sindh by the end of this month," he warned while talking to the media.

The train began from Karachi on Thursday morning. Party workers kept joining the march as it snaked through Sindh towards Islamabad stopping at Kotri, Tando Adam, Shaheed Benazirabad and Rohri railway stations.

The train is due to reach the federal capital Islamabad on September 7 with more supporters are expected to join in at Rahim Yar Khan, Khanpur, Bahawalpur, Multan, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Okara, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

The love Sindh march will hold a public meeting outside the parliament house on September 8.

"The PPP government was voted into the power by Sindhis. But it is punishing its most staunch supporters with poverty, calamity, lawlessness, water shortage and allowing the Sindhis to be turned into a minority," Palijo said.

He warned that the people of Sindh will not allow the restoration of Pervez Musharraf's local government system before terming it as a continuity of Ayub Khan's One Unit system. "He [Musharraf] divided Sindh in fiefdoms with the two big cities given under the control of MQM and the rest went to the marauding feudals."

He accused the PPP for once again opting to hand over the biggest cities of the province to the MQM under the garb of a new governance system.