In the run-up to the local bodies elections, Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim is stifling the voices of dissent in his native Tharparkar district 

Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim's detractors claim that he is out to sweep the upcoming local bodies elections by any means necessary. The claim does not seem unfounded given the increased harassment of opposition politicians by the Tharparkar administration, where Rahim currently holds sway. Many perceive the chief minister's actions to be those of a feudal lord who is not loath to claim that he owes his position to a military dictator.

In recent months, Rahim's most renowned victim has been Jam Saqi, 59, a former student and peasant leader who earned popular respect by resisting successive military regimes in Pakistan, for which he spent 12 years in jail. An erstwhile leader of the Communist Party of Pakistan, Saqi joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the early 1990s. He confronted the influential Arbab family in elections as early as 1970 and again in 1988. Though he lost on both occasions, his subsequent affiliation with the PPP gave him wider appeal. He also gained political influence during the mid1990s when he became an adviser to the Sindh chief minister.

Given these credentials, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), of which Saqi is a member, had least expected the chief minister to ruthlessly persecute Saqi when he visited Khetlari. The HRCP had sent Saqi to Rahim's native village in Tharparkar to investigate a rape and kidnapping case involving the chief minister's nephews. Saqi, who lives in Hyderabad, returned home from Khetlari on May 28 and submitted his report to the HRCP. The next day, he was arrested and charged with the possession of 1,250 kilogrammes of explosive material. Apparently, Saqi's name was added to a first information report (FIR) for the explosives case lodged on May 21, which originally charged only Urs Daidano, Ahmed Razi and Akbar. According to Rao Amir Iqbal, the station house officer at the Market Police Station, Hyderabad, Saqi was released the following day on a personal bond" as no evidence was found against him".

But on June 5, a heavy contingent of police from Karachi raided Saqi's Hyderabad residence. Since he was not at home, the officials arrested his wife Akhtar Sultana instead on the charge of kidnapping for ransom. It later transpired that Shakil Naich, a journalist close to Rahim, had filed an FIR with Karachi's Eidgah Police Station on May 29, the day Saqi was picked up by the police. In the FIR, Naich accuses Saqi and his wife of kidnapping his minor son for a 500,000-rupee ransom. A former husband of Akhtar's sister Afsar Sultana, Naich had previously moved to obtain custody of his sevenyear-old son when Saqi's family had landed in trouble. The child has now been handed to Naich in an out-of-court settlement. Meanwhile, Saqi's wife Akhtar was released from Karachi's women's police station on June 15 after a 10-day detention. As for Saqi, he went into hiding following the June 5 raid on his house and has only recently come into public view.

Another object of Rahim's alleged vendetta is Arbab Murad Ali and his family. A 70-year-old lawyer and PPP leader, Ali stands out as the only scion of Tharparkar's Arbab family since the early 1970s to have challenged Arbab Ghulam Rahim and his clique. Over the decades, Rahim is alleged to have persecuted Ali and his family and implicated the lawyer in petty criminal cases such as the theft of goats. In April 2005, the Hyderabad Electric Supply Corporation (HESCO) charged Ali with stealing electricity and consequently, the power supply to his native village Bhukrio in Diplo Taluka was also suspended. The residents of Bhukrio, who maintain they have been regularly paying their bills, have since gone to the court in Mithi to challenge the disconnection.

For his part, Ali, who was arrested on HESCO's complaint in April, faces an uphill task. The sessions court granted him bail in the power theft case on June 2 but Fazlur Rahman, Mithi's town police officer, rearrested him the same day on charges that were not immediately known. It was later discovered that the authorities had booked him under the multi-purpose Maintenance of Public Order law. The Sindh High Court, where the detention was challenged, ordered Ali's release on June 25. But before he could be set free, Ali had to register yet another shock: his nephew Arbab Mohammad Haroon, a school teacher and PPP activist, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on June 21 in a corruption case. Haroon had been actively pursuing Ali's case until his arrest.

 Observers believe that Ali's freedom may be short-lived because Rahim "cannot afford to let him off the hook". Apparently, the chief minister is embroiled in some serious disputes of a personal nature with Ali's family. According to these observers, the family feud became particularly intense after 1997 when the PPP government was ousted from power. Locals allege that at the time, Rahim took advantage of Ali's vulnerable position and seized a portion of his agricultural land. Rahim is also accused of abetting in the kidnapping of Ali's daughter a few years ago, an offence that is rarely allowed to go unpunished in rural Sindh. "Rahim fears retaliation from Ali in case the PPP comes into power," explains one observer.

As a result of this paranoia, Rahim's government is reportedly out to crush the entire PPP leadership in Tharparkar. On May 29, the police arrested PPP leader Mir Mohammad Khan Lund from his village Kaloi without specifying any charges against him. In June, Lund's son Abdul Aziz moved the Sindh High Court which then ordered the regional police officer of Mirpurkhas to produce Lund in court and specify charges against him. That demand remains unmet. Initially, the police had detained Lund at the Kaloi Police Station. But in a bid to prevent him from contacting his family and sympathisers, he has been moved to a police check post in the distant Rann of Kutch area.

Similarly, PPP activist Mohan Lal Meghwar was arrested from Thatta by the provincial ACE on May 13 for overdrawing salary funds from an education project receiving foreign funding. Meghwar is the brother of Engineer Gianchand, a PPP leader who ran against Rahim in the 2002 general elections and was also the PPP's covering candidate in the August 18 by-election. Another reason for Meghwar's persecution, say observers, is that he is the only pro-PPP member of district council Thar, which is otherwise dominated by Rahim's supporters. A special ACE judge granted Meghwar bail on May 27 but the authorities of the Hyderabad jail, where he is lodged, refused to release him. Although Meghwar remains incarcerated, no fresh charges have been brought against him as yet. In light of such" officially sponsored" intimidation, observers do not expect the opposition to make a mark in the forthcoming local government elections in Tharparkar.