‘Over a dozen PPP lawmakers in touch with Grand Democratic Alliance’

Leaders of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) have claimed that over a dozen provincial lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have been in touch with members of the opposition alliance.
Addressing a presser on Sunday, GDA’s central secretary general, Ayaz Latif Palijo, and central secretary information, Sardar Abdul Rahim, asserted that the GDA was in pole position to form the next provincial government in Sindh.
The leaders said the opposition alliance, comprising Sindh’s anti-PPP political parties except the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, would not accept any partial caretaker government in the province such as the one established in Sindh before the 2013 general elections. They alleged that the reins of the previous caretaker setup were in the hands of PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.
The GDA leaders urged the ‘establishment to refrain from imposing the PPP on Sindh’s people again’. They said the party had previously been imposed on Sindh’s people by the establishment on six occasions. “We will not allow the next elections to be hijacked in any way.”
They said that failure of PPP’s government in the province had become known by the World Bank’s report, which said that up to 80 per cent population in the province had been doing without facility of clean potable water.
The party’s nine years’ of rule in the province brought nothing but bad governance for Sindh’s people as majority of them are living without basic necessities.
Sugarcane growers suffering
The alliance’s leaders stated that sugarcane growers of the province had to massively suffer owing to the Sindh government’s indecision over fixing the support price on which to procure sugarcane. This was done only to give undue financial benefit to its favourite sugar mill owners, the leaders stated.
They demanded the Sindh chief minister to step down for failing to avert the sugarcane crisis.
The province’s basic civic infrastructure has been in shambles despite the Sindh government receiving Rs200 billion from the centre as its share in the federal divisible pool, added the GDA officials.
Corrupt rulers of the province should be held accountable for plundering the public exchequer, the said.
Endless corruption
The democratic alliance would provide an alternate leadership for Sindh as the province is currently surrounded by a corrupt ruling clique led by former president Asif Ali Zardari, observed the speakers, adding, that ‘Zardari has been conspiring against people of Sindh.’
The GDA office-bearers demanded the National Accountability Bureau to lay hands on senior government officials up to secretary level for the corruption they have done, instead of just arresting junior staffers of the provincial administration.
They urged the NAB chairman to not remain silent on the menace of corruption that plagues the province as the entire world has now come to known of this brazen issue.
The leaders observed that they would not make ally of parties that have advocated for a divided Sindh.
Both the PPP and the MQM have been acting against the interests of the province as both the parties have in the past been involved in siphoning money abroad to offshore accounts, the leaders claimed.
They further stated that the alliance has been in touch with the election commission to get it registered in order to contest the upcoming 2018 polls. They also announced holding a grand public meeting in Sukkur on November 26.