January 14, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 13, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 13: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has condemned the snatching of hides by armed members of a government party and has demanded that the culprits be arrested and punished according to law.

In a statement issued on Friday, MNAs of the MMA, Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdul Sattar Afghani and Mohammad Laeeq Khan said though the government had announced a procedure of hide collection on the occasion of Eidul Azha, members of a government party, carrying guns, had snatched hides on all three days of Eid.

They said threats were extended to members of the Al-Khidmat in particular and people in general before Eid, adding that during Eid days, members of the government party, under official patronage, had carried out their hide snatching activities.

They criticized law enforcement agency personnel, who despite being requested by people as well as MMA activists did not take any action against the culprits. Pointing out that nobody had been arrested so far, they demanded that the culprits be immediately arrested and punished according to law.

OFFAL COLLECTION: The MMA’s MPAs, Nasrullah Shajji, Hameedullah Khan and Yunus Barai have criticized the city government for failing to collect offal even after three days after Eidul Azha.

In a statement issued on Friday, they said the previous city government used to clean up the city of offal immediately but the new city government had failed to do so even after so many days of Eid. They said besides offal, roads and streets remained inundated with sewage, which was increasing the miseries of citizens.

They said citizens had been visiting the offices of UC nazims to get their neighbourhoods cleaned of offal, but their issues were yet to be solved.

They said citizens who were already being victimized by bhatta collectors and hooligans had felt that when even simple issues like offal collection were handled inefficiently by the people, who claimed to run the city government under good governance, how could they then solve the more serious issues of the masses.

They said heaps of garbage were getting bigger in neighbourhoods, but the city government had yet to clear these so that the masses could live in a healthy environment.