HYDERABAD, Sept 19: The former minister for railways, Haji Zafar Ali Laghari, has appealed to the chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court for restoration of the powers of district and sessions judge of Dadu, Amir Ali Thari as district returning officer.

He was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday.

He alleged that Mr Thari’s DRO powers were taken back on at the behest of Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi, was behind it.

The former federal minister said Mr Thari had ordered raids during the local body elections to free innocent persons from police custody.

He said that the nephew of Liaquat Jatoi was underage and his educational certificates were fake so he could not contest for the nazim of Khairpur Nathan Shah taluka.

He said that it was the first instance in Pakistan that the judge had been deprived of his DRO powers.

Mr Laghari called upon the bar associations of the country to raise voice against injustice with the judiciary.

He appealed to the chairman of national accountability bureau (NAB) to take notice of Jatoi’s illegal activities.

He also requested to President General Pervez Musharraf to save judiciary from the hands of people like Jatoi.

JSSF: Leaders of the Jeay Sindh Students Federation, Sindh University unit, have demanded to authorities to close the issue of four years degree programme for ever at the Sindh University.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday, Asif Junejo, Shehraz Ahmed Bhatti, Nisar Ahmed Lakhair, and Mustafa Mughal said that the new programme had created a restive atmosphere at the campus and majority of the students were against it.

They claimed that other universities of the country had already rejected the programme.

They demanded more point buses for the university as 50 buses were not sufficient for thousands of students.

The leaders said that the case registered with police against 12 protesting students on September 12 should be taken back.

They said that the dean of pharmacy should be changed as he was not a pharmacist.

The JSSF leaders said that the B-Block of the university hostel was occupied by police. It should be returned back to the students, they said.

They said that many departments of the university which were supposed to register with the engineering council had not registered so far. All such departments should immediately be registered with the statutory councils, they said.

The student leaders criticized the self-finance scheme for affecting the admission quota of the interior districts of Sindh.

They demanded that the original quota of those students who were residents of the interior districts should be restored.

They said that security forces should be removed from the educational institutions.