PPP’s Dec 27 rally: CM confident that millions will turn up

About 7,000 policemen will be deployed in Naudero.

SUKKUR: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said very confidently on Sunday that millions would turn up to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally being organised on December 27 in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh.

He visited the venue for the rally with Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and then spoke to the media outside Naudero’s town hall. The chief minister said that PPP has strengthened democratic institutions through its policy of reconciliation and the credit for this should go to President Asif Ali Zardari. He reaffirmed his confidence in the President and said, “PPP has nearly completed its tenure. All the elected governments should be allowed to complete their tenure according to the constitution.” He said that conspiracies had been hatched against the party since it came to power, but all of them had been foiled. The chief minister also paid tribute to senior Awami National Party leader Bashir Bilour, who was killed on Saturday in Peshawar with eight other people.”Bilour was a strong critic of terrorist and advocated democracy as well as peace.”



Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, who also spoke on the occasion, said that extremism was born and nurtured in the long spells of martial law that the country had witnessed. He said that terrorism began to germinate in Pakistan during the rule of General Ziaul Haq and then grew during the tenure of the former president General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf.

The federal minister also brushed aside the reservations of Muttahida Qaumi Movement about delimitation in Karachi and said it would not affect the schedule of the general elections.

Arrangements for rally

The chief minister, religious affairs minister and provincial ministers Agha Siraj Durrani and Ayaz Soomro earlier met the district’s administration to finalise the arrangements for the event being organised on the fifth death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.

The Larkana SSP said that 7,000 policemen will be deployed in Naudero and Garhi Khuda Bukhsh. “Large vehicles will not be allowed on the roads in Naudero, Garhi Khuda Buksh and Larkana from December 26 to 28.” PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is expected to chair a meeting of central executive committee in Naudero House on December 26 at 7pm. On the morning of December 27, a dua will be held at the mausoleum of the martyrs in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2012.