THATTA, April 17: The elected representatives of people and civil society leaders appealed to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday to regularise 27 old villages in the limits of Makli, which had been excluded from Gothabad Scheme due to lack of some official requirements.

Pakistan People’s Party’s MNA Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro, provincial minister Sassui Palijo, provincial minister Abdul Jalil Memon, MPA Usman Jalbani, civil society leaders Dr Mohammed Ali Manjhi and Imtiaz Qureshi issued the appeal after a delegation of villagers from Dost Mohammad Hamati, Shah Latif, Hanif Khushik, Pir Hanif Shah, Ghulam Hussain Kumbhar, Ali Murad Dars and other villages apprised them of their problems.The delegation said that they had been living in the villages for decades and availing all the civic facilities like electricity, water supply, gas and metallic roads etc. Misfortune struck them when the Board of Revenue cancelled allotment of Deh Makli, where the 27 villages were located, on the recommendation of Dr Nasir Javed, the then deputy commissioner of Thatta, on June 30, 1997.

The action was taken on the pretext of some irregularities in the issuance of sanads and the villages were subsequently excluded from Gothabad Scheme, they said.

On July 29, 1998 the former Sindh Chief Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi ordered restoration of sanads and regularisation of the villages at an open katchehry in Makli and the then deputy commissioner Rashid Basheer Mazari communicated the CM’s orders to the director of Gothabad Scheme but he did not implement the order, despite the villagers constantly pursuing the case.

Former Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim had also ordered in an open katchehry on Sept 5, 2007, the DCO to prepare a brief summary about the villages’ case, which had been submitted to caretaker chief minister but to no avail, they regretted.

The leaders said in their appeal that the chief minister would right a wrong done to the villagers and thus administer justice by regularising their villages.