HYDERABAD, March 9 The employees of Jamshoro power house on Monday observed tool down strike to protest against the proposed leasing of Jamshoro and Kotri power houses (Genco-I).

The morning shift work was totally suspended due to the strike as a large number of employees took out a procession and staged a protest demonstration outside the control room.They raised slogans against the proposed leasing of Genco-I and warned that they would besiege all those parties which would participate in the lease bid scheduled to be held on March 25.

Speaking on the occasion, the chairman of the powerhouses union, Mohammad Sajan Panhwar, Mohammad Hanif Ansari, Ali Asghar Shah and other union leaders condemned the privatisation of government enterprises during the democratic government. They said that these units were earning profits and there was no cogent reason to privatise them.

The union leaders accused the present rulers of following the policies of military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf and demanded that the decision to privatise Genco-I be withdrawn failing which they would block the power generation system.

PROTEST PPP activists staged a demonstration outside the press club in Tando Mohammad Khan on Monday to protest against the desecration of Benazir Bhutto's memorial and torching of portraits of Ms Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari in Rawalpindi allegedly by PML-N workers.

Speaking on the occasion, the acting district president of the party, Mohammad Ali Qureshi, said that the Sharif brothers had tendered a written apology to dictator Pervez Musharraf and sought refuge abroad in the darkness of the night.

He said it was due to the efforts of Benazir Bhutto that the Sharif brothers were allowed to return to the country. It is regrettable that now the PML-N activists were torching the portraits of Benazir Bhutto, he said. He condemned the use of intemperate language by Sharif brothers against President Zardari.

The district general secretary of the party, Ali Akbar, Akhtar Memon, and others also spoke on the occasion.

SOCIETY A meeting of Sindh Historical Educational and Cultural Society discussed different matters pertaining to the society and stressed the need for creation of a business consultancy consortium in the wake of a proposal of a Pakistan-Bangladesh friendship society.

The proposal was put forward by Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistan, Saqib Ali, during his recent visit to Hyderabad on the society's invitation.

The meeting formed three different teams for education, culture and traders. The teams are headed by Abdul Rehman Rajput (culture), Akhtar Ahmed Memon (education), Abdul Salam Abbasi (trade) as chairmen of their respective committees. The vice chairmen of the committees would be from Bangaldesh.

Mr Qureshi briefed the meeting about education village. He thanked president of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) for backing the proposal for education village and including it in the agenda for a meeting with senior member Board of Revenue Ashfaq Memon.

The meeting decided to introduce some positive changes in the society to achieve desired results.

Abdul Rehman Rajput, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khanzada, Akhtar Ahmed Memon, Prof.Attaullah Jalbani, Qaiser Ali Khan and Abdul Salam Abbasi attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, former MPA Mr Rehman Rajput has been appointed as chairman of telecommunication sub-committee of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry by president of the chamber.