HYDERABAD, Oct 17: The Pakistan Human Rights Forum (PHRF) on Monday accused a powerful Jamali chieftain of Dadu of expelling a poor farmer from his 9.5 acres of land he had mortgaged to the agricultural bank.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club, the forum’s central coordination secretary, M.P. Channa, said that the farmer, Abdul Sattar Kumbhar, had approached the influential people in the government but was turned away. He then observed a token hunger strike for eight days but nobody cared, he regretted.

Mr Channa said that the Jamali chieftain whose one brother was a powerful political figure and the other was a DPO, did not stop at dispossessing the poor farmer but also forced Mr Kumbhar and his family to flee his home in Dadu.

He said that the forum would stage protest demonstrations throughout the province to ensure that justice was done to Mr Kumbhar.

MQM: Leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Monday welcomed the prime minister’s announcement that the federal government would release more funds for the improvement of sewerage and water supply system in Hyderabad.

In a joint statement, MNA Pervez Qureshi and MPAs, Arshad Shah, Naeem Ishtiaque and Aslam Pervez, appealed to the prime minister to ensure that his announcement was implemented in letter and spirit and without any further delay.

They said that the government should also compensate the thousands of people who had suffered huge losses during the recent heavy rains.

MLF: The newly elected chairman of the Muttahida Labour Federation, Mohammad Asif Khattak, has strongly criticized the introduction of contract system throughout the country and privatisation of national entities.

In a statement issued on Monday he said that the measures had rendered thousands of workers jobless. He assailed the violation of minimum wages laws, ban on the inspection of factories by the labour department and exemption from the implementation of labour to the industrial units being established in the special industrial estates.

Mr Khattak said that despite the government’s tall claims, the factory owners were not implementing labour laws.