LARKANA: Sindh Caretaker Minister for Law Umar Soomro on Sunday asked the deputy commissioner and medical superintendent concerned to get removed the names of politicians and others from the hockey stadium, cricket ground and civil hospital in Shikarpur.

Accompanied by Shikarpur Deputy Commissioner Altaf Chachar and SSP Khalid Mustafa Korai, the minister took round of the hospital, hockey stadium and Shahi Bagh cricket ground and asked the administration for the removal the boards of Abdul Rehman Shaikh and Shaheed Altaf Bhayo from the stadium and hospital.

He cited that Sindh High Court had in a verdict asked for restraining from hanging any board or placing banner with politicians’ names on government properties.

During his visit, he deplored bad shape of the stadium where no lights were installed and no benches were fixed for the sportsman to take rest.

The minister for sports would be contacted to release the required funds for the betterment of the stadium as youth needed good grounds to play, he said, adding that soon provincial-level hockey and cricket matches would be held in Shikarpur.

Hidden hands behind policemen’s abduction

In Jacobabad, the minister said that some hidden influential hands were behind the Shikarpur incident as they were trying to fail the interim setup.

Talking to reporters after meeting traders and businessmen at a local hotel in Jacobabad, he said the abduction of five police officials in Shikarpur was a reaction to the action being taken against dacoits.

The minister said that the influential people wanted to restore the old bandit rule when dacoits used to patrol in uniform in a police mobile van in Shikarpur.

“We will be facing some hardship to uproot their rule, but we will not budge from our commitment,” said the minister.

He said police operations were being conducted against the dacoits and outlaws operational in Kandhkot-Kashmore, Shaikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghokti districts.

Though the operations had not been started the way they should have been due to the presence of floodwater in those areas, as soon as the water receded, the action would be accelerated, he said.

About the polls, he said the Election Commission of the Pakistan had informed the Supreme Court that it could hold general elections in January or February, but some political parties had started saying that people would not come out to cast votes.

When asked, he said there were three types of Afghans in Pakistan and only the illegal Afghan immigrants would be repatriated to their country while others would be sent back to their camps.

He stressed that the police and health departments needed to be cleaned of corrupt people.

When asked, he said the citizen and businessmen of Jacobabad had been facing many problems, including lack of basic facilities, for the past several years.

“We are going to hold an open kachehri next week in Jacobabad,” he said, urging people to attend it and take up the issues facing them. The interim government wanted to give relief to people till it was functional, he vowed.

Anjuman Tajran president Mir Ahmad Ali Brohi, Hindu General Panchayat president Lalchand Seetlani, Electricity Union president Srichand Bhavnani, PPP leader Mir Rahmatullah Khoso and others were present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2023