18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

HYDERABAD, Nov 17: People's Party Parliamentarians MNA Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur has lashed out at the PIA staff posted at Jeddah airport and said that it is due to their inefficiency that hundreds of Pakistanis who had gone to Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah could not celebrate Eidul Fitr with their families.

In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Wednesday, he said that the Pakistanis remained stranded at the Jeddah airport on the Eid day. He alleged that even confirmed seats of some passengers were cancelled and sold out to others by the PIA staff after taking bribe.

He said that the action of the PIA staff had not only caused a lot of inconvenience to the passengers but also brought a bad name to the country. The MNA said that he would raise the issue on the floor of the National Assembly.

JI: The Hyderabad chapter of the Jamaat Islami has condemned the arrest of Tharparkar district Ameer of the JI, Abdul Subhan Samejo, and other party workers in a false case of goat theft.

In a joint statement issued here on Wednesday, Hyderabad JI Ameer Shaikh Shaukat Ali and general secretary Dr Fawad Ahmed accused the Sindh chief minister of victimizing the party activists.

They said that police were raiding the homes of JI supporters to harass and intimidating them. They claimed that since the JI had opposed the election of Shaukat Aziz from Tharparkar, the chief minister and his cronies were openly victimizing its leaders and workers. The JI leaders warned that such methods would not be tolerated.