PPP will sweep polls: Muzaffar

Brushes aside threat posed by 10-party alliance.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate for PS-88 (Thatta-V), Owais Muzaffar, is upbeat about a stunning victory for his party not only in the district also in parts of Sindh.

“It’s a big fuss over nothing,” he said while referring to the 10-party alliance, led by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional chief Pir Pagara, which has fielded candidates in Sindh.

In an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune, Muzaffar accused the alliance’s leaders of supporting dictators in the past and then posing as ‘champions of democracy’. He also challenged the parties’ self-identification as nationalist.

“No party [in Sindh] apart from PPP is nationalist … PPP is the only party working to protect the rights of Sindh, while these so-called nationalists have allied themselves with the enemies of the province,” he said.

“They have a specific agenda against the PPP… [But] not only will I be victorious in the polls, my party will sweep every national and provincial assembly seat from Thatta,” he maintained.

About speculation that he would be the next chief minister of Sindh, he said, “I am a diehard worker of the party and I do not believe in any post and position … I will accept whatever responsibility is given to me in the future.”

Among the myriad issues confronting the people of Thatta, the lack of clean drinking water is the most urgent one, according to Muzaffar. “Can you believe that people and animals in Thatta are using water from the same canals and ponds,” he said. “Whether I come to power or not, I have promised these people I will resolve this issue.”

Muzaffar, who was late PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s personal assistant during her tenure as prime minister in 1988, sees great potential in Thatta in spite of the prevalent depravation among the people of Sindh’s coastal belt.

“The founder of our party, his daughter, even President Asif Ali Zardari have the vision for developing the coastal belt,” he said, recounting that it was ZA Bhutto who was responsible for developing the road network in the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2013.