HYDERABAD, Aug 16: Sindh minister for population welfare Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh has reacted to the remarks of the Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee leaders against the Sindh government and its ultimatum to observe black day on Aug 23 when the president is due to visit Sindh .

Talking to journalists at a local hotel on Friday, he said that the component parties of the Sindh government are fighting the case of Sindh in and outside the provincial assembly and the government would not disappoint the people of the province.

Mr Shaikh expressed the opinion that only those people were exploiting the greater Thal canal issue who had to hide their faces after the elections.

He said that those politicians were accusing the government of not providing relief to the rain-affected people, who themselves had not even visited the affected areas. On the other hand, the minister claimed, he had visited every affected village and added that he was fully alive to the problems of the rain-hit people.

He said that a massive relief operation had been launched and there may be some lapses in it but it was wrong to say that no relief had been provided to the rain-hit people.

Earlier, Mr Shaikh visited the rain-affected areas of Thano Ahmed Khan in Dadu district and acquired information about the problems of the rain-affected people.

He assured the people that the government was doing everything possible for the rain-affected people.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, Al-Haj Shamimuddin, Malik Alauddin Khan and others also accompanied Mr Shaikh.