September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 3: Anger is simmering in Lyari Town, a strong support base of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), reportedly due to the indifferent attitude of the relevant authorities towards the solution of the problems afflicting the locality.

Identifying water shortage, proper disposal of solid waste, unemployment and encroachments as some of the main issues persisting in the area for the last two decades, area people stressed the need for a special development package for the financially-starved town.

Disgruntled PPP workers and ordinary people in Chawkiwara, Kalakot, Baghdadi, Shah Beg Lane, Kalri and Khadda-Nawababad, who have always voted for the Pakistan People’s Party, have now started criticising the party’s local leadership over their failure to address their urgent civic problems.

Pointing to the mounting civic problems in the area, representatives of Lyari NGOs and CBOs also blame the party’s local leadership for its failure to solve them.

A few elderly people at Nawabad said the problems had been mounting because of population growth. They said that the PPP’s support base was shrinking because of the negligence of party’s leadership to address the problems.

The locality has been facing acute water shortage and sewerage problem for a long time and residents often hold rallies to register their protest.

A diehard supporter of the PPP acknowledged that people had started criticising the PPP due to the multifarious civic problems being faced by them.

Another senior party worker said that Lyari’s dilapidated roads, overflowing gutters, unauthorised apartments, unemployed youths, sprawling rubbish bins, mushroom growth of illegal bus terminals in residential areas and pollution were some of the problems the party’s leadership must address without further delay.

Senior workers of the PPP have also urged the party’s leadership to announce a special development package for Lyari Town.