HYDERABAD, Jan 28: Employees of daily Sindh, led by its editor Ghulam Rasool Sehto, observed a token hunger strike outside the local press club on Tuesday.

They are protesting against what they describe the discriminatory attitude of the Sindh information department in respect of advertisements for the regional press, particularly daily Sindh.

Talking to journalists, Sehto said that the federal government had agreed to allocate 25 per cent and the Sindh government 60 per cent of advertisements to regional newspapers but the promise was never fulfilled.

He said that owing to the discriminatory attitude of the Sindh information department and its policies towards Sindhi dailies, seven newspapers had been closed down and some others were going to do so.

He said that Sindh was also deprived of its due share of advertisements as a result it had suffered a loss of Rs10 million, adding that the daily was being punished for pursuing objective reporting.

Giving details. he said that some working journalists had launched Sindh on Nov 5, 1995, which gave new dimensions to te Sindhi journalism and became the voice of the people of Sindh.

He called upon the members of the Sindh Assembly to raise the issue on the floor of the house and ask the treasury benches about the allocation of advertisements to Sindhi newspapers.

He demanded due share of government advertisements to Sindh and other Sindhi newspapers.

Noted intellectual Ibrahim Joyo, Parwano Bhatti and others also participated in the protest to express their solidarity with the Sindhi press.