HYDERABAD, July 28: Activists of the Labour Party Pakistan took out a procession in protest against Zulfikarabad city project here on Saturday and said the “anti-Sindh and anti-environment project” would  displace around 250,000 native people from their ancestral land.

Provincial leaders of the party, including Bakhshal Thallo, Faiz Keeriyo and Mubarak Jatoi, said that besides displacing people the project would adversely affect livelihood of around two million people.

They said that 1.3 million acres of land was required for the project. One million acres would be reclaimed from the sea and 300,000 acres would be obtained from native people.

They accused the government of cancelling registry of land in the areas falling in the limits of the proposed city. Local people were upset over cancellation of registries of their land.

About 265 kilometres of coastal land would be occupied by outsiders who wanted to usurp Sindh’s natural resources, they said.

They said that the city was being built for the rich without thinking about the poor who had been residing there for centuries and earning their livelihood, he said.

If the government wanted to develop the area or the province it must set up industries, improve agriculture and promote dairy industry instead of building a city, they said.

Besides, the city would pose a serious threat to environment because thousands of mangroves would be cut down on a vast area to reclaim the land, increasing possibility of cyclones and floods to hit main cities, they said.

They said the government past track record showed that it had never accommodated local people in projects like Karachi Shipyard, Karachi Port, Dockyard, Port Qasim, Steel Mill etc. They urged the government to shelve the project immediately.

Dues demanded

Former workers of defunct SRTC staged a sit-in outside the press club on Saturday in protest against non-payment of dues and urged the government to clear their arrears before Eidul Fitr.

Ghulam Mohammad Daiper, president of action committee of defunct SRTC employees, said that employees were forced to retire on Dec 7, 1999 under an agreement inked between employees and officers of SRTC which said all employees should be paid a sufficient amount through a golden hand shake.