PPP-led Sindh govt gears up for Dec 27 rally

PDM leaders expected to attend rally this year; PTI’s Haleem Adil decries ‘attempts to obtain NRO’

The Sindh IGP and divisional and district administration of Larkana were directed on Wednesday to ensure foolproof security measures for the former prime minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary to be observed on December 27 at Ghari Khuda Bux.

This time the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership will also be attending the rally, said Shah, adding that entry points should be marked for the PDM leadership to enter and exit the mazar.

“As far as the arrangements of security, traffic management and administrative measures are concerned the divisional and district administration must prepare its plan and share [it] with me,”he said, presiding over a meeting of the ‘mazaar committee’ on the day to review arrangements.

Briefing the chief minister, the IGP said that a control room to monitor the public meeting has been established at Garhi Khuda Bux and traffic management guidelines have also been issued.

Pakistan Peoples Party stalwarts Nisar Khuhro, Sohail Siyal and Jameel Soomro briefed the CM over arrangements made to ensure provision of clean drinking water and clean washroom facilities. Besides, they discussed parking lot arrangements and lighting and sound system for the rally.

Walk through gates will be installed at seven entry and exit points of the rally, the meeting was told. The CM issued directives to make coronavirus-related arrangements for the event and said that he would personally visit and review the arrangements.

‘No NRO’

Meanwhile, addressing the media on the day, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Haleem Adil Shaikh decried the opposition’s efforts with regards to the PDM and claimed that the opposition was only out to save their ‘papa-daddy’ - referring to three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari - the Maulana.

He levelled that the opposition was only out to seek an NRO for their corruption worth millions and that the PDM leaders wanted money laundering to be excluded from the National Accountability Bureau’s ambit.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2020.