HYDERABAD: Activists of Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment-Pakistan’s Bahadur­abad group held a protest demonstration in Liaquat Colony on Friday against ina­dequate provision of civic amenities and prolonged loadshedding.

MPA Mohammad Huss­ain, a member of MQM-Bah­a­durabad coordination committee who led the protest, said Sindh government was trampling upon fundamental rights of residents of Sindh’s urban areas.

He said that conspiracies were being hatched to create new groups within MQM and people were being bought to tear apart the party’s unity but the party would not allow anybody to create rifts in its ranks.

He urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice against the Sindh government. PPP government had released billions of rupees in the name of development but no progress was seen on ground, he said.

He warned Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Water and Sanitation Agency to stop committing excesses against people. Frustrated consumers would lay siege to their offices if the utilities did not mend their ways, he said.

He said later at a press conference that stepmoth­erly treatment was being meted out to urban areas.

Residents and shopkeepers of the Station Road area also held a demonstration outside Qadamgah Maula Ali after Friday prayers in protest against stagnating sewage on the main road.

They shouted slogans against district administration, Hyderabad mayor and Wasa managing director, and burnt tyres on the road.

Their leaders, Maulana Haider Abbas Zaidi, Mau­lana Abbas Zaidi, Maulana Rehmat Ali Leghari and others, demanded the provincial, district and local governments drain stagnant sewage outside Qadamgah Maula Ali.

They said that officials concerned were least concerned about hardships of residents and traders on the Station Road.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2018