HYDERABAD, July 15: The dissident group of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League headed by S. M. Ilyas, Samiuddin, Sajid, Begum Manzar Rawal, Mehboob Junejo and Khalid Butt called off hunger strike on Sunday after the visit of party’s central senior vice-president, Maqbool Shaikh.

Mr Shaikh visited the hunger strikers’ camp outside the press club and persuaded the group to call off protest. He was accompanied by party’s labour wing leader, Arif Hassan.

Mr Shaikh said afterwards in his address to a gathering of workers at the press club, that their problems would be settled soon. The party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had taken notice of the protest and sent him to Hyderabad to find out causes behind the protest, he said.

He would report their grievances to the chief minister and then the disgruntled workers would be invited to meet with central office-bearers of the party.

Earlier, S. M. Ilyas, Samiuddin Sajid, Mehboob Junejo, Begum Manzar Rawal and Ms Nasreen Riaz accused political adviser to chief minister, Senator Ghaffar Qureshi of destroying the party in Hyderabad.

They said that Mr Qureshi had thrust his favourites on Hyderabad at the expense of thousands of sincere workers. They had suspended the protest for 10 days to give the leadership time to take a final decision, they said.