HYDERABAD, May 24: Sindh People's Party Parliamentarians president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro has demanded registration of amurder case against the Sindh government for supplying poisonous water to people of Hyderabad.

He was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday evening. MPAs Zahid Bhurgari, Sassui Palijo, Farheen Mughal, Mir Fateh Talpur and Maula Bux Chandio and other local party leaders were also present on the occasion.

Mr Khuhro said that several people who consumed contaminated water had been hospitalized. The consumption of the poisonous water had also caused deaths of people, he further said.

He alleged that people of Hyderabad had died due to inefficiency and indifferent attitude of the Sindh government. He claimed that the water crisis had been deliberately created. He said that the people sitting in the Indus River System Authority were unable to enforce their orders as they were interested only in protecting their chairs.

Mr Khuhro, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, said that the irony was that the secretary for irrigation was claiming that poisonous water of the River Indus which had been released from the Manchhar Lake was just like mineral water.

He said that the Sindh government thought that it had done its duty by announcing a compensation of Rs100,000 for each bereaved family. The PPP leader said that the Sindh government had failed to take a stand on the water issue.

He said that the federal water and power ministry had published an advertisement, claiming that it had installed 9,000 tube-wells in the country but not a single tube-well had been installed in Sindh.

He said that Sindh was being discriminated against in every walk of life. While electricity was provided at flat rate of Rs4,000 per tube-well in Balochistan, Sindh was deprived of this facility, he regretted.

Mr Khuhro demanded that electricity to tube-wells in Sindh should also be provided on flat rate. He sarcastically said that the government in fact did not want to encourage the agriculture sector due to huge commission on imported wheat. He said that the Australian wheat which had been returned by the government was not substandard as it was purchased by Middle Eastern countries.

He claimed that the dispute was not over the quality of wheat but over commission. Speaking on the occasion, MPA Sassui Palijo said that one person had reportedly died of gastroenteritis in Keti Bunder.