Rally in Umerkot: Imran rejects talk of Sindh’s carve-up

Apologises over ‘tsunami’ not reaching Sindh’s shores.

HYDERABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan kick-started his political campaign in Sindh on Monday with an apology to the people of the province for the perception that his tsunami had fizzled out before reaching its borders.

“I apologise to the people that the tsunami which started from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), stopped in Punjab. But now we will go to every district of Sindh,” Khan assured a passionate crowd of thousands of supporters who gathered to hear him at the public meeting in Umerkot.

This was the second show of PTI’s political presence in Umerkot since February 2012 when Khan’s first ever rally packed the Marvi ground, which is locally famous for either being filled by rainwater or by rallies of the late Benazir Bhutto. The district is also hometown of PTI’s only minority MNA Lal Chand Malhi.



Imran said people were talking about dividing Sindh into two provinces but PTI wanted a united Sindh for a strong Pakistan.

“The Sindh one, Sindh two formulas are not acceptable [to us],” he said referring to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain’s recent speeches.

He said the people of Umerkot had been living a miserable life due to poverty, unemployment and lack of health and education facilities.

“You have no idea how prosperous this desert can become with the help of natural resources and coal,” Imran said, adding that corruption, injustice and a lack of political will had kept foreign investments from flowing into Sindh.

The PTI chief stressed that it was impossible for investments to pour in until law and order situation improved and peace was restored, which according to him, was only possible by withdrawing from the US’ war on terror.

Citing PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s election defeat from two of Sindh’s constituencies Umerkot NA-228 and Tharparkar NA-230, Imran said PTI had lost both seats by around 1,000 votes and 13,000 votes due to rigging in Sindh.

“We knew there was going to be a fixed-match in Punjab and Sindh in favour of PML-N and PPP, yet we contested elections,” Imran said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2014.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated NA-28 instead of NA-228. The error is regretted.