Qureshi launches tirade against PPP

People who voted for PPP are being deprived of drinking and irrigation water, says foreign minister

HYDERABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan Peoples Party's government was subjecting Tehreek-e-Insaf and his religious group supporters in rural Sindh to vindictive actions.

Addressing a large gathering of PTI and Ghousia Jamaat (Qureshi’s religious group) supporters in Umerkot on Friday, the foreign minister said that the oppression would not last long.

"People of Punjab and Balochistan have rejected PPP,” he said. “People of Sindh will also see the [PTI led] change in their province.”

Qureshi, who also contested 2018 general election from a constituency in Umerkot said that the public servants who voted for him through the postal ballots were being removed from their posts.

The foreign minister alleged that PPP lawmakers elected from Umerkot were stealing irrigation water with impunity from the small farmers while district's SSP was implicating PTI supporters in fake FIRs.



“People who voted for me are being deprived of drinking and irrigation water,” he said, while reminding the PPP leadership that the supporters of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were also subjected to same treatment after his death.

Qureshi remarked that the winds of change began from Karachi where PTI secured the highest number of seats in national and provincial assemblies in the 2018 general election.

"Soon change will occur in Umerkot, Tharparkar and the rest of Sindh," he said.

He recalled that South Punjab used to be the last bastion of PPP in Punjab until PTI ousted it in the elections.

He said that PPP rode roughshod during its last eleven years rule in Sindh.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned the attack on PTI MPA Muhammad Ramzan who was elected from Lyari, Karachi, and demanded of the provincial government to arrest the offenders.

Commenting on relations with India, the FM observed that the upcoming elections in the neighbouring country were the cause of delay in talks. He, however, maintained that talks would be held and that Pakistan was not in haste.

The FM credited Prime Minister Imran Khan with conveying a message of peace and harmony through the opening of Kartarpur corridor.

Speaking earlier, PTI MNA Lal Malhi informed the gathering that the premier would visit Tharparkar in February and would likely announce installing of a railway track and gas pipeline besides issuance of health insurance cards.