Bilawal concerned over transfer of ECP officials in Umerkot

Karachi
Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday expressed concern over the transfers of returning officers (ROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs) in Umerkot district by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) just a week ahead of the first phase of the local government elections in the province, allegedly after succumbing to political pressure from local influentials.
Bilawal said that on the one hand the Sindh government had been directed by the ECP not to make any transfer or posting after the announcement of local government election schedule, and on the other it seemed to be violating its own directives because it had succumbed to pressure from “nuisance groups”.
He said this while presiding over meetings with PPP office- bearers and candidates from Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparker districts at the Bilawal House. The meetings were also attended by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, MNA Faryal Talpur, Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jeelani, MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Mir Munawar Talpur, Jameel Soomro, Senator Engineer Gianchand, Senator Hari Ram Kishori Lal and other elected representatives, office-bearers and senior workers of the party from these districts.
Bilawal appreciated the decision of the party leadership to award tickets to candidates from the minority communities for general seats, including those of district councillor, chairman and vice chairman of union councils, in the three districts of Mirpurkhas division.
“The awarding of party tickets to minority candidates on general seats for local bodies’ elections has reinforced and reiterated the PPP’s commitment to serve and marginalised and downtrodden people,” he said. “This is a clear manifestation of the party’s ideology of equality and fair play.”
On the occasion, he also urged the party workers to be united in the Mirpurkhas division from where he expected 100 percent victory.
Bilawal said “free-wheeling” politicians and “turncoats” had always cobbled alliances against the PPP in all the previous elections on the instigations of undemocratic forces, but they had always met with defeat.
The PPP workers and office= bearers from all three districts also separately met the chief minister to discuss the political situation ahead of the upcoming local government elections, and the arrangements made by the provincial agencies for maintaining peace and security.

Balochistan issues
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the federal and Balochistan governments to take urgent steps for mitigating the sense of deprivation in the province by providing basic amenities to the people.
He said this during a meeting with PPP ticket holder from Gwadar, Ijaz Baloch, who had called on him at the Governor House on Thursday.
Baloch had informed Bilawal that people of Gwadar were facing severe shortage of drinking water for the past three months but the authorities had remained unmoved despite protests and demonstrations.
He said plants had been installed in Gwadar but natural gas was available for only a few selected localities while the poor and traditional fishermen’s communities did not have this facility.
Bilawal remarked that such injustice and discrimination in the provision of civic amenities in were intolerable and his party wouldn’t remain silent over the issue.
He said the late Benazir Bhutto had ordered the construction of Akra Kaur Dam near Gwadar in 1988 which had been completed during her second tenure in 1995 to provide potable water to the people of Gwadar.
He stressed the federal and Balochistan governments to pay heed to water shortage in Gwadar to avoid any human tragedies, adding that people were the owners of their own resources after the 18th amendment.
Bilawal assured Ijaz Baloch that he would meet PPP workers from Balochistan and look into the party’s organizational affairs.