KARACHI, July 22: The Pakistan Peoples’s Party leaders from Malir on Tuesday accused the provincial government of ignoring Old Thana and adjacent areas where six people had died of water- borne diseases.

Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, MNA Mr Sher Mohammad Baloch, who is also the PPP president of Malir chapter, MPA Abdullah Murad and others also accused the government of selective dispensation of relief in the rain affected areas.

They alleged that despite loss of so many lives none of the officials of the provincial government visited the area, which is the bastion of the PPP.

They criticized the governor and the chief minister for not even announcing any assistance for the rain affected people of the area. They alleged it was owing to their partisan attitude and demanded that immediate action should be taken in this regard.

They alleged that owing to illegal excavation of sand from the bed of Malir river, water table had gone down and turned brackish, thus ruining once flourishing agriculture of Malir.

The situation, they said, had seriously undermined social and economic condition of the area where unemployment had reached at alarming rate.

They alleged that illegal excavation was continuing, despite a ban imposed ten years back, owing to corruption which was threatening the fabric of civil society in the metropolis as well as the entire country.

Owing to unhealthy and contaminated water, they alleged that doctors feared outbreak of hepatitis. Out of 93 blood samples taken from Jam Kunda for test, 91 were declared hepatitis positive. The UNICEF took 136 blood samples, out of which 46 per cent were positive, they said. Out of 400 such samples taken by the Aga Khan Hospital, 37 per cent were of those who were affected by the hepatitis, they added.

They regretted that despite loosing two of its nazims, the city government had not allocated any fund for the treatment of hepatitis, which was still affecting many people.

The leaders also complained of prolonged power breakdowns and uncalled for behaviour of the KESC officials, who they alleged were deliberately humiliating the residents.

They alleged that the amount collected as rural tax was not being spent on the towns falling in the rural areas. Neither the city government nor the provincial government had announced any mega project in Bin Qasim and Gadap areas, they alleged. Moreover, local people were not being given employment in Pakistan Steel Mills and other similar projects operating in the vicinity, they said.