LARKANA, March 14: A multi-party conference held here on Monday criticised the slow pace of work on rehabilitating and strengthening the Akil-Aghani dyke along the Indus and urged the government to complete the work in a month.

The conference, convened by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), was presided over by Senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro.

Dr Soomro warned the government that there would be devastation if the work was not completed before monsoon.

He said the people of Larkana were worried about the condition of the embankment.

Participating in the discussion, Gada Hussain Mahesar, vice- president of Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), said

questions had been raised about the capacity of contractors doing the work. He called for engaging foreign firms for the crucial job.

He said the embankment from Akil-Aghani to Thatta was in a bad shape and it might not withstand a flood. If the dyke collapsed, he warned, Larkana and other towns which were spared by last year's flood, would be severely hit.

He said government had yet not plugged the breaches of canals on the right bank of the river and it was a matter of concern for them that 10 gates of Sukkur Barrage had been closed. He called for urgent measures to complete the work.

Shahid Rind of Tehrik-i-Isnaaf accused the government of having adopted a non-serious attitude to rehabilitation work and said that if the slackness continued people living along the river would face a disaster in the event of a flood.

Khair Mohammed Shaikh, PPP's vice-president for Larkana district, said that government was working hard to repair the damaged dykes.

He stressed the need for allocation of additional funds for early completion of the work.

Haji Abdul Majeed Shaikh of the Sindh Hari Abadgar Board, Qadir Bakhsh Bhatti vice-president of District Bar Association, Altaf Ansari of PML-Q, Mohammad Bakhsh Jatoi of PLM-N, Kashif Saeed Shaikh of Jamat-i-Islami, Qamaruddin Qadri of Sunni Tehreek and Ahmed Nawaz Brohi of Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party called for transparency in the dyke repair work and its timely completion.

The conference constituted an action committee with Senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro as its convener.