LARKANA: Activists of different political and social organisations took out a rally and staged a sit-in under the banner of Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) outside the offices of Larkana Municipal Corporation on Thursday in protest against a general breakdown of basic civic amenities’ provision in the city.

The protesters, including activists of the component parties of LAI, Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz Chandio, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers and other religious and social organisations, chanted slogans against the city mayor and called for his resignation.

Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, convener of the LAI, said that people at the helm of affairs preferred to serve their own interests instead of taking care of the city. Asif Ali Zardari and his coterie were responsible for the deterioration of civic conditions, he said.

Maulana Nasir Mehmood Soo­mro, district president of JUI-F, said that the mayor had failed to ensure cleanliness in the city, roads were fast deteriorating and faulty drainage system with oozing gutters was adding to insanitation in the city.

He demanded the mayor should step down and criticised “discriminatory” anti-encroachment drive in the city which had rendered many people jobless.

GDA’s MPA Moazzam Abbasi alleged that PPP was punishing people of Larkana for handing him victory on a Sindh Assembly seat. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who was also elected by this constituency on a National Assembly seat was responsible for conditions in the city.

PPP-W head Dr Safdar Abbasi said the sit-in was not only against the mayor but it was also against Bilawal. Mr Zardari did not own Larkana as he originally belonged to Nawabshah, he said.

Riaz Chandio said the people of Larkana had the right to raise voice for their issues as Sindh government had failed to deliver. He demanded inquiry into LMC’s financial matters and asked town residents to inflict a thorough defeat on PPP in Larkana in upcoming local bodies’ elections.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2019