KARACHI, July 16: Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh chapter secretary general Taj Haider has said certain vested interests are trying to pit the local communities in Lyari against one another to destabilise the provincial government.

Mr Haider, a member of the five-member committee constituted by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to resolve issues of the Kutchhi community in Lyari and to resettle Lyari’s internally displaced persons living in Thatta, Badin, Bhambore and other cities, was speaking at a press conference after their meeting in the chamber of Law Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, the head of the committee.

Mr Haider, who was seated with Dr Mandhro, Syed Ali Mardan Shah and Rashid Rabbani, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was disturbed over reports of shifting of population from Lyari to other places, but he was worried neither about the kidnapping of sons of the late Punjab governor Salman Taseer and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani nor about the policemen taken hostage by the Chhutu gang.

He said if the prime minister was really serious about the Lyari issue, he should sit with the Sindh chief minister and the chief secretary to find a solution to it. In reply to a question, Mr Haider said it was not a fight between the two communities. If it had been so, the issue could flare up to other localities as well where Kutchhi and other local communities lived in harmony.

At the start of the press conference, he recalled that the committee after meeting IDPs during their visit to Bhambore and Badin on Friday had submitted an initial report to the chief minister on Saturday and the chief minister immediately sanctioned funds and other resources for better care of the IDPs.He said that the affected families were provided a primary school building with 22 spacious rooms with other facilities, but the IDPs for reverence to the shrine of a saint preferred to stay there in camps instead of moving to the school building. However, he said, as per the CM’s instructions they were being looked after not only by the local PPP leadership but also by the administration.

The IDPs had no demand except the return of a durable peace in their Lyari localities so that their children did not suffer because of violence and frequent gunfire.

Responding to questions, the PPP leader said in Lyari there were 20 UCs but only four UCs (1,2, 6 and 8) were affected because of entry points from where miscreants entered and fired into the air to create fear among people.

He said the committee had recommended to the chief minister to set up permanent police and Rangers posts to check infiltrators, a demand also supported by the local people.