Rahim wants assemblies’ term extended to 2008

Staff Report

HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Sunday urged General Pervez Musharraf to extend the term of the present assemblies to 2008.

Talking to reporters at a wedding, the chief minister said this would mean a more stable country and the next general elections should be held in 2008. He said Gen Musharraf should remain president up to 2008.

About the National Finance Commission award, he said Sindh had prepared its case and it would be presented at the next meeting of the NFC called by the prime minister this month.

On the opposition’s protests against the president’s military uniform, Rahim said any opposition doubts that the public did not want Musharraf to remain army chief should have been removed after the reception the president got at a rally in Gujrat. He said the president would soon address a larger rally in Sindh.

Rahim claimed that the recent violence in Kambar town following the creation of new districts in the province stemmed from objections to the selection of Shahdadkot as district headquarters and not from the bifurcation of the district. Had that been the case, the people of Kambar would not have distributed sweets to celebrate the creation of the new district, he added. He said he had received a demand for the bifurcation of Hyderabad district, but any such plan would only be implemented after consultations with elected representatives from both rural and urban areas.

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