MIRPURKHAS, Sept 30: A non-government organisation, Society for Development and Human Rights (SDHR), has condemned the recent holding of a jigra in Dharki area of Ghotki district to resolve a six-year-old dispute, which has so far claimed 11 lives and left many injured.
Despite taking this dispute to court, the jirga imposed fine of Rs5 million on both parties as compensation for the killings, an SDHR meeting here on Tuesday observed. The meeting also noted with concern the participation of political leaders and parliamentarians of the ruling and opposition parties in the jirga.
The NGO’s secretary-general, Akhtar Hussain Baloch, said that jirgas were a challenge to the writ of the government.
He said that the Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench, had given a historical verdict against the holdings of jirgas and had termed such meetings illegal in April 2004 but after the decision at least 200 jirgas had been held in different parts of the province and the government had failed to check the holding of these jirgas.
The meeting called for the arrest of all the participants of the Ghotki jirga and urged the relevant authorities to register an FIR against all of them.
CLARIFICATION: EDO revenue Ali Ahmed Baloch has refuted allegations of creation of an artificial shortage of urea fertiliser and of receiving kickbacks from fertiliser dealers.
He said that the allegations had been levelled on the government functionaries by some ‘irresponsible’ people who, according to him, were not growers.
Talking to Dawn, he said that he had taken notice of overcharging by fertiliser dealers and forced them to sale urea fertiliser at the official rates. He said that he had recommended the secretary agriculture to suspend the licences of 12 fertiliser dealers who were not complying with the government directives.
He said that he had also sent letters to different fertiliser companies, informing them that the district administration had recommended penalty called “ business seized “ for six months against some fertiliser dealers who had masterminded the artificial shortage of urea.
He claimed that 542,950 bags of urea fertiliser were required in Kharif season in the district but 588,130 bags were supplied to the growers, which meant that the supply was more than the demand.
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