HYDERABAD, July 26: The Hyderabad Grand Alliance has condemned the apathy and indifferent attitude of the Sindh government towards the flood- affected people and urged it to take effective measures to provide relief to them.

A meeting of the alliance was held here on Wednesday night under the aegis of PPP with Abdul Rehman Rajput MPA in the chair.

The meeting took strong exception to the distribution of employment on 50-50 party basis and demanded that all employments should be made on merit and not on party basis.

It condemned the threat by America and Nato to wage a war against ‘terrorists’ within the territory of Pakistan and said that this was tantamount to violating the sovereignty of Pakistan which would be resisted.

Speaking on the occasion, the President of the Alliance, Abdul Rehman Rajput MPA, said that the struggle heralded by the lawyers with the full support of the political and religious parties and the masses for the independence of judiciary had forced the rulers to retreat.

He said this was in fact a referendum against the unconstitutional government. He paid rich tribute to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the lawyers community on their successful struggle and added that the people had now pinned a lot of hopes in the judiciary.

PPP leader, Amanullah Siyal, in his speech said that at the instance of the MQM, police had registered false cases against the alliance leaders although the criminals involved in heinous crimes were roaming about freely.

Jamat-i-Islami leader, Abdul Waheed Qureshi, welcomed the decision of the multi-parties conference held in London to sever all relations with the MQM.

He said the people of Hyderabad had already rejected this terrorist party by electing Sahibzada Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair as MNA and Abdul Rehman Rajput as MPA.

Sunni Tehrik leader, Khalid Hassan Attari, said that MQM was an ethnic organisation and it had always created hatred among various communities living in Sindh.

Those who attended the meeting, included Shia Ulema Council leader Moazzam Shah Naqvi, STP leader Shoukat Abro, Abdul Rehman Shaikh advocate, SNP leader Ashraf Noonari, ANP leader Sher Zaman and others.

SPLA: Scores of college teachers under the banner of Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Thursday to protest against the inordinate delay in the acceptance of their demands.Speaking on the occasion, Professor Liaquat Aziz, Professor Siddique Unnar, Taj Joyo, Yaqoob Chandio and others said that instead of resolving the genuine problems of the college teachers, they were being victimised.

They said that while the ad-hoc lecturers in other provinces had been regularised, the ad-hoc lecturers in Sindh had not even been paid their salaries for the last five months.

They said there was acute shortage of teachers, furniture and laboratory equipments in the colleges of interior Sindh.

They demanded that the college teachers should be upgraded on the pattern of university teachers, equal salary and allowances to the college teachers of urban and rural areas, and removal of retired officers from the educational boards and regularisation of the services of ad-hoc teachers.

FATHER’S APPEAL: Senior journalist and poet Parwano Bhatti has expressed fears that a conspiracy was under way to save one of the murderers of his son Gul Mohammad Bhatti by sending him abroad after securing his release from prison.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said, his son Gul Mohammad Bhatti, who was a leader of JSQM, was cold-bloodedly murdered on July 28, 2004. He said, one of the accused, Mazhar Memon, was attacked by his own friends on March 28, 2006, and was seriously injured and shifted to hospital where he was arrested by Qasimabad police.

Parwano Bhatti alleged that Mazhar enjoyed the support of police and was shifted to National Hospital Karachi and then Civil Hospital Hyderabad. He said Mazhar was given VIP treatment including an air-conditioned room, cellphone and all other facilities.

He said he had learnt that the accused had now been shifted to Karachi jail from Hyderabad central jail.