HYDERABAD: Agitating employees of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) stopped water supply to consumers and shut down a couple of sewerage pumping stations causing water shortage and sanitation problems in Hyderabad, Latifabad and Qasimabad on Wednesday.

The employees, demanding their four months salaries and dues, have been holding protests for weeks but, according to them, without any response from the authorities concerned. They staged a sit-in at the Jamshoro New Filter Plant in the morning and rose for the day at sunset as no official concerned visited them, said an office-bearer of the HDA Mehran Workers Union.

The protesting workers warned that water supply to three of four talukas of Hyderabad would be disrupted off and on until their demands were met.

Residents of many areas of Hyderabad district experienced an acute shortage of water and insanitary conditions due to the agitation and its fallout.

It was reported that two sewerage pumping stations were shut down from 9am to 3pm on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

During the course of their sit-in, they protesters kept raising slogans against the provincial government, Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) and Wasa for their indifferent attitude towards their financial woes.

They demanded immediate payment of their current and pending salaries as well as other dues. They said they and their families were on the verge of starvation due to non-payment of their salaries but the authorities concerned were still not responding to their distress calls now when Eidul Fitr was approaching.

General secretary of the union Mohammad Aslam Abbasi said that around 1,200 regular employees and 400 pensioners had received no payment from Wasa since April while another 1,400 contractual employees and daily wage-earners had not been paid their salaries/wages for seven months.

Due to what the HDA and Wasa administrations described as ‘financial constraints’, employees had not been paid their general provident funds since 2002, he claimed, and added that no official concerned approached the aggrieved workers or their leaders during the day-long protest sit-in at Jamshoro on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Wasa managing director Mr Saleemuddin, when contacted, expressed his concern over the situation and said that a subsidy of Rs40 million per month was supposed to be paid to the agency to run it properly. He said that a summary seeking a financial assistance of Rs117 million had been sent to the chief secretary for an urgent action but it had been pending for long.

‘Policeman’s killer’ held

Jamshoro police claimed to have arrested prime accused in a case of a policeman’s killing after a raid on a house in Khursheed Colony in Kotri on Wednesday.

SSP Wasi Hyder told journalists at his office that police had arrested Ahmed alias Mammi Pathan and seized two stolen motorcycles and a pistol with bullets from the house he was hiding in. He was involved in the murder of police constable Amanullah Mallah who was posted in Jamshoro CIA centre, said the official.

Mallah was gunned down on his way home on June 9 by four gunmen riding two motorcycles near Haji hotel within the jurisdiction of Kotri police station.

The SSP said that Ahmed had confessed that he had committed the murder with the help of Saddam Mallah, Karo Mallah and Sohail Chandio. Saddam had already been arrested in a motorcycle snatching case while Karo and Sohail were still at large, he said.

He said that three policemen were killed this year and police succeeded in reaching culprits in all cases.

Head constable Abdul Waheed Memon was killed on Jan 2 in an armed robbery and Allah Wasayo Zardari who served as guard of a civil judge was killed on June 2 by four armed men in armed robbery within the jurisdiction of Khanote police station, he said.

Man killed over enmity

A man was shot dead reportedly for the sins of his brother in Latifabad Unit No6 within the jurisdiction of B-Section police station late on Tuesday night, said police.

B-Section SHO Malik Qamar said the man was attacked by two unidentified armed men when he was going home on his motorcycle. The body was shifted to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Hyderabad where he was identified as Habibullah son of Hamesh Gul Pathan, 50, he said.

Pathan who was hit in the abdomen was elder brother of Sami Choori who was said to be involved in heinous crimes and imprisoned in the central jail, he said.

The SHO said the murder appeared to be an offshoot of his brother’s enmity with other competing criminal gangs. Nothing was snatched from Habibullah who was a quack and lived in Latifabad Unit No5, he said.

No case was registered with police so far.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014