THATTA, July 4 A large number of unemployed youths took out processions in different parts of Thatta district on Sunday in protest against what they said recruitment of over 300 youths from other areas of Sindh in government departments in the district. They were supported by the local PPP activists.

In Makli, the protesters marched on the main thoroughfares and converged at the press club where Jamshed Qureshi and other leaders of Thatta Berozgar Committee accused some Sindh ministers of appointing their favourites without any interview or test.

In Mirpur Sakro, a large procession of unemployed youths and PPP workers staged a sit-in on the Karachi —Sakro road.

Malik Luqman Malkani of the Sindh PPP council told the protesters that after a meeting with legislators from Thatta, President Asif Ali Zardari had asked the chief minister to review the irregular appointments in the district but no step had yet been taken.

Mumtaz Rind, Mohammad Khan Gabol and Ashraf Samoon said that the coastal talukas were facing unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and health problems.

Not a single good road had been constructed in the area. The local people, they said, were being deprived of their legitimate right of employment.

Similar processions were taken out in Keti Bandar, Kharochhan, Ghorabari, Jati and Shah Bandar.

Legislators from Thatta district, including MNA Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro and MPAs Sadiq Ali Memon, Sassui Palijo, Humaira Alwani and Haji Usman Jalbani also criticised recruitment of outsiders even as watchmen, gardeners and junior clerks in the district.