PTI to oust PPP even from Sindh: Qureshi

PTI vice chairman says Zardari did more harm to PPP than any military ruler

HYDERABAD: The PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said after ousting the PPP from other provinces of the country, the PTI has now embarked upon the political struggle to dislodge the PPP even from Sindh, its political bastion.

"Imran Khan and PTI have decided now that after Punjab, K-P [Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa] and Balochistan we will oust the PPP even in Sindh. For almost a decade, the people of Sindh have been suffering due to bad governance and corruption of the PPP governments,” he said on Friday night.

Qureshi was addressing a public meeting in Sindh’s Umerkot district on the occasion of Hindu community's Diwali festival at Lamba Ground. Thousands of people, including supporters of Qureshi's Ghausia Jamaat, attended the rally.

"Punjab has rejected the PPP. People don't want to see faces of Asif Ali Zardari and former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Parvez Ashraf," he claimed, while referring to the recently held by-polls at Lahore’s NA-120 constituency where PPP faced a humiliating defeat.



“In the by-polls, the PPP candidate bagged only 1,400 votes.  This is the same constituency from where the PPP had earlier won several times during the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.”

He asked the people either to choose the path of suffering, atrocities, cruelties and injustice as a fait accompli or to rebel against the oppressive system of politics.

"If you opt for the first path then this will be my last public meeting in Umerkot. I want decision on the streets by the people because decisions taken in the court of the people are the most honourable," he added.

The PTI's vice chairman, who had contested 2013 general elections from the National Assembly constituencies of Umerkot and Tharparkar, defended his defeat at the hand of the PPP candidates. He said he had not come to Sindh to be elected as an MNA but rather to create a political awakening.



He boasted what he described as the PTI’s successful power shows in Hyderabad, Dadu, Sukkur and Umerkot districts of Sindh. He said after Oct 22 public meeting in Sehwan, where Imran Khan will address the party's supporters, the momentum of these gatherings will increase.

"I will confront you Asif Zardari," he vowed. Qureshi, who was a key leader of the PPP and Pakistan’s foreign minister during the party’s last government, blamed the PPP co-chairman for damaging the party more than any military dictator.

Speaking on the occasion, MNA Arif Alvi said accountability of Zardari was about to begin. "The wealth Zardari has plundered from Sindh will be recovered and returned to the people," he said.

Referring to Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani's recent comment, Alvi said the PPP leaders had disregarded sanctity of the vote. Durrani had reportedly said he peed on the vote.

PTI’s Umerkot-based leader Lal Malhi said the party had entered Sindh and had become a political option for the people, especially of rural areas. Haleem Adil Shaikh, Nuzhat Pathan and other PTI leaders also spoke.