HYDERABAD, July 17: The leaders of Awami Tehrik (AT) on Tuesday urged the government to spend the Rs40 billion set aside for the purchase of land for Kalabagh Dam on the rehabilitation of flood and rain victims in the province.

AT leaders Ayaz Latif Palijo advocate, Zahid Mallah advocate, Syed Alam Shah and Vishnu Mal said at a a news conference at the press club that Musharraf government and his puppet provincial governments were responsible for failure in providing relief to rain and flood victims in Balochistan and Sindh.

Mr Palijo called upon the members of parliament to tender resignations as the present set-up had stripped the parliament of its powers and made them redundant.

He urged them to join people's struggle against the rulers and said that Pakistan today was faced with multidimensional problems and the people of Sindh in particular were living in abject poverty deprived of all political, economic and social rights.

He said that recent rains and floods had proved to be proverbial last straw for the people of Sindh and Balochistan where the floods had destroyed tens of thousands of homes and left the homeless people at the mercy of hunger and disease.Three weeks had passed since the catastrophe struck the two provinces but the government, instead of providing relief to the unfortunate victims, was busy in staging Lal Masjid drama, he said.

He said that his party believed that the Musharraf government had staged the bloody and anti-people Lal Masjid drama to divert people’s attention from the disastrous floods, MPC held in London and the ongoing struggle for the independence of judiciary.

Mr Palijo said that his party had decided to hold demonstrations and hunger strikes throughout the province on July 20, 21 and 22 in protest against the criminal negligence of government during floods. A conference would also be held in Hyderabad on July 26 to raise a strong voice for the rehabilitation of affected people, he said.