HYDERABAD: The Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STPP) warned of a bitter movement across the province if the Sindh governor, Dr Ishratul Ebad, were not removed immediately.
"President Zardari should replace him with an agreeable personality from the Sindhi, Urdu or any other ethnic group," said the chairperson of the party, Dr Qadir Magsi, at a press conference on Thursday.
The demand is likely to be opposed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), as it comes at a time when the prospects for the reintroduction of the contentious Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001, are becoming stronger.
Magsi, who is also the convener of the Sindh Progressive Nationalist Alliance, gave till September 30 for the acceptance of this demand and warned that from October 1, the campaign will start. Sindhi nationalist leaders have been opposing Ebad's appointment as the governor since he assumed office in 2002 but this is the first time, however, that a threat has been articulated with a timeframe and an organised struggle.
Local government elections
Magsi maintained that the rulers want to hold local government elections in order to delay the general elections. "Why did the Pakistan Peoples Party not feel the need of local bodies during the last four and a half years of its rule?" he asked.
He said the system is being restored through an ordinance, yet the assemblies are in session which showed the reluctance of the PPP and its allies to pass the bill. Magsi criticised the LG system and accused it of enabling corruption and embezzlement of development funds to fill the coffers of the political parties.
The STPP leader claimed that over four million Sindhis have not been registered in the new electoral roll. He accused the interior minister, Rehman Malik, of supporting the registration of around 1.3 million voters, who do not belong to Sindh to please the MQM.
Magsi appealed the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim to introduce electronic voting in the next elections. "If the Election Commission does not have funds to buy the machines then it should seek funding from foreign donors or the United Nations," he suggested.
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Since how long he is the governor? more than 10 years....No body wants to go. Top position holders in pakistan are convicted and criminals; Governor has murder charges on him.
The governor represents an alliance of the two major parties of Sindh - parties representing more than 84% of the seats in the provincial assembly. On the other hand, the STPP does not have a single seat in the assembly. The non-entities opposing him do not deserve the importance the media has been giving to them.