KARACHI, June 19: The hunger strike at the Press Club by six agricultural officers who passed the Sindh Public Service Commission in 1998 entered the second day on Thursday.

Those observing the strike are: Aftab Ansari, Khan M. Ujjan, Riaz Memon, Lalchand Makhwani, Azhar Wesar, and Zahid Tunio. All the protesters have postgraduate degrees in agriculture.

The protesters said that responding to the advertisements given by the Sindh Agriculture Department in the newspapers for 111 vacancies of agricultural officers, they had appeared in the examinations conducted by the Sindh Public Service Commission in 1998. Over 1,000 candidates appeared and 85 passed the written tests and viva-voce examinations.

They said that now over four years had passed, but the department was not offering them jobs.

They said that the requirement of the officers in the agriculture extension department was clear from the fact that after 85 candidates had passed, the department within a few weeks again advertised the remaining 26 vacancies.

They said that following the hardships and mental torture of over four years at least one of the 85 successful persons, Asifullah Kakepoto of Shikarpur, had died some time back, while the rest were extremely depressed.