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HYDERABAD, Nov 4: The activists of Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) here on Sunday took out a peace rally from Gharib Nawaz bridge, Hali road, which after marching on the city roads terminated at the Hyderabad press club.
The participants carried white flags as symbol of peace and banners and placards inscribed with slogans rejecting fundamentalism, terrorism and American strikes on Afghanistan.
LPP vice president Makhdoom Rasheed, Omer Baloch and Dost Mohammad Channa led the rally.
Speaking on the occasion Makhdoom Rasheed said that September 11 incident had provided an excuse to USA to protect its vested interests in this region.
He said America was not interested in the arrest of Osama bin laden but its interest was to acquire bases in this region with a view to take over oil and mineral resources of Central Asia.
He said that due to American aggression, the peace of this region had been destroyed.
Umer Baloch said that American imperialism had thrust war on Afghanistan and added that on the pretext of eliminating terrorism and fundamentalism, it wanted to impose a puppet government in Afghanistan.
He said that Mullah Umer and Osama were heroes of America not long ago but today they had become anathema for it.
He said on the one hand innocent Afghans were being massacred and on the other the economy of Pakistan was being destroyed.
He said that religious forces in Pakistan were spreading fundamentalism and encouraging terrorism by inciting the students of religious seminaries to take part in Jihad.
He also condemned Musharraf government for supporting America by handing over airports to it.
The others who spoke at the rally included Ghaffar Malik, Hafeez Jatoi, Ghulam Nabi and Peer Mohammad Sindhi.
ABADGAR BOARD: The working committee of Sindh Abadgar Board at a meeting held here on Saturday, expressed grave concern over the negative affects of Afghan war on the economy of Pakistan.
Presided over by Mr Abdul Majeed Nizamani, the meeting was of the opinion that the economy was under tremendous pressure due to Pakistan’s support to American war in Afghanistan.
The meeting pointed out that agriculture sector contributed 80 per cent of the national economy and 70 per cent of the population was directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.
It observed that due to the Afghan war, war risk surcharge was levied on imports and exports which had a negative affect on the agricultural economy and the worst sufferers were the growers.
It expressed concern that with the harvesting of onion crop, its price had dipped from Rs4 per kilo to Rs2 and Rs3 per kilo though the cost of production of this crop was more than Rs4 per kilo.
The meeting brought it to the notice of the government that due to this anomaly, the growers were suffering huge losses.
The meeting demanded that the war risk insurance on the export of onion should be abolished and concessions should be announced in the shipping line tariff for the export of onion to Gulf countries, Sri Lanka and Singapore.
