Voicing concerns: JUI-F decries ‘political victimisation’ of leaders

Party leader accuses Khursheed Shah of registering fake cases against JUI-F leader, workers.

SUKKUR: Hundreds of workers and supporters of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam — Fazl (JUI-F) staged a sit-in at Minara Road, Sukkur, on Sunday against what they termed the ‘political victimisation’ of their leaders and the loot and plunder of development funds by National Assembly opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah.

Carrying placards and banners and led by JUI-F Sindh secretary-general Rashid Mehmood Soomro and Maulana Saud Afzal, party workers and supporters marched from Madrassa Hamadia Manzil Gah to Minara Road. Shouting slogans against Shah, they staged a sit-in for more than an hour, suspending traffic between Sukkur and Rohri.

Addressing the protesters, Soomro condemned the ‘negative attitude’ of Shah and accused him of registering fake cases against JUI-F leaders and workers in Pano Akil, particularly Sardar Ali Gohar Indhar, who had contested the election on the PS-3 seat against a Pakistan Peoples Party candidate in 2013.

According to him, Shah had earlier resorted to political victimisation of Inayatullah Buriro of Pakistan Muslim League — Functional, who was his party’s candidate for the NA-199 election against him in 2013. “Now he has started a similar campaign against our leaders and workers.”

Soomro added that Shah’s name was on top of the list of influential persons who have looted the development funds of the city, causing Sukkur’s deteriorating civic conditions.

“If the leader of the opposition continues his negative practices against our leaders and workers, we will stage a sit-in outside the CM House in Karachi on May 1,” he warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.