HYDERABAD, Jan 16: Goods transporters in Sindh have urged the government to extend the date for filing loss claims from Jan 20 to Jan 30. They say that their documents were incomplete.

The demand was made at a meeting of the Sindh Goods Transports Owners Association held here on Wednesday under Haji Asmatullah Khan Mehsood.

Participants of the meeting observed that transporters were still picking up frames of vehicles destroyed during recent riots and the authorities concerned had not yet issued them forms for filing claims.

They demanded that goods transporters should be paid in full to rehabilitate their businesses.

The meeting condemned the attack on vehicles of Rana Ashraf Khalid Goods Transport a couple of days ago and urged the district nazim, the DCO and the DPO to order the arrest of people involved in the incident.

They also called for payment of compensation to Rana Ashraf who had been injured in the attack.

It condemned the bomb blast incident in Karachi and offered Fateha for the departed souls.

CLAIM FORMS: Tando Allahyar DCO Dr Farooq Laghari has announced that committees have been constituted to verify and assess losses/damage caused to public and private property and loss of human lives during the riots following the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.

He said that the two-member committees, comprising the DDO revenue and the mukhtiarkar of each taluka of the district, had been asked to ensure distribution of claim forms to the affected people. He said that claim forms would also be issued during Muharram holidays.

He advised the affected people to submit their claims at the office of the DDO revenue or mukhtiarkar concerned up to Jan 20, after which no claim would be entertained.

JUP: Senior vice-president of the Jamit Ulema-i-Pakistan Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair welcomed the Chief of Army Staff’s orders, discouraging army officers from meeting politicians, and said that the army’s image would be restored if these orders were implemented in letter and spirit.

However, in a statement issued here on Wednesday, the former MNA expressed doubts about the orders’ implementation and said that President Pervez Musharraf was still living in the Army House despite having retired from the army.

He said that some army agencies at the instance of President Musharraf were still patronising the PML-Q and the MQM.

He urged General Kayani to ensure that his orders were obeyed by all and sundry.