HYDERABAD: Ex-SRTC men threaten with fast unto death
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, April 7: The former employees of the defunct Sindh Road Transport Corporation continued their hunger strike outside the Hyderabad press club here on 35th consecutive day on Sunday.
They are protesting against the non-payment of their dues.
The chairman of the Former SRTC Employees Action Committee, Syed Ahmed Ali Shah, and joint secretary, Syed Irshad Ali Shah, told newsmen that the Sindh cabinet, which met on March 12 under the chairmanship of Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, had granted approval that Rs257.6 million should be paid to the former employees of the corporation. They added that the transport minister of Sindh, Deewan Yousuf had admitted this fact.
They deplored that however, the workers were not being paid their although their payment had been sanctioned and they were being kept on false hopes for the last 28 months.
They said that they had sent a fax message to the President of Pakistan for his personal intervention in the matter.
They warned that if the payment was delayed any further, the workers will resort to hunger strike unto death from April 10 and some workers will commit self-immolation outside the Sindh Secretariat on April 15 for which the Sindh government will be responsible.
JSQM: A large number of the activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz continued their token hunger strike outside the press club here on the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
They were protesting against the shifting of JSQM chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi and the Jeay Sindh Students Federation president Kehar Ansari, whose cases were pending in Hyderabad courts, to Landhi jail, Karachi.
Talking to newsmen, the JSQM leaders, Chacha Qasim Soomro, Mushtaq Khan, Faqir Najeeb Qureshi and others complained that the central vice chairman of the party, Dr Niaz Kalani, had been kept in solitary confinement at the Nara jail.
They warned that conspiracies against Qureshi and Kalani should be stopped forthwith otherwise the party would extend the scope of the protest to the whole province.
Qureshi has also moved applications in the Anti-Terrorism Courts through against his transfer to the Landhi jail.
His counsel has contended that the transfer of his client to the Landhi jail was a contempt of court.
