KARACHI, Oct 15: Founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain has urged transporters not to overcharge for transporting relief goods to quake victims and thus participate in the relief and rehabilitation drive.

In a statement on Saturday, he also appealed to traders not to increase the price of essential items, blankets and tents.

Mr Hussain expressed his dismay over reports that some traders had taken advantage of the natural calamity and increased the prices by 50-100 per cent of the items, required urgently for the relief and rehabilitation of quake victims. He said that such attitude of some heartless profiteers was deplorable.

Meanwhile, the MQM has announced that it would observe ‘Yaum-i-Dua’ in Sindh on Sunday. Public gatherings will be held across the province at 1pm to offer fateha for those who died in the natural calamity and to pray for the recovery of those injured in the quake.

In Karachi, the main gathering will be held here at the Jinnah Ground, Azizabad, whereas in the interior, the gatherings will be arranged in zonal offices of the MQM.

Yaum-i-Dua will also be observed by the party in the capital and three other provinces of the country. The MQM has also cancelled all iftar parties.

MQM relief teams have been providing assistance to quake victims in Bagh, Khula Bandi and other towns and cities of Azad Kashmir.

A 15-member medical team sent by the party’s Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation arrived in Bagh on Friday where it assessed damages and distributed medicines, blankets, etc., besides providing medical aid to the injured.

In Muzaffarabad, an MQM medical team provided assistance to 30,000 people injured in the quake. Similarly operations are being carried out by the MQM in Mansehra and its adjoining areas.