HYDERABAD, Sept 9: The Tajir Action Committee, Nawabshah, has accused the land mafia of using its influence and forcibly occupying shops and ejecting their owners.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Thursday, they said they had been tenants of the Golwala market for 50 years and were paying rents regularly to its manager, Abdul Sattar.

They said the land mafia secretly purchased shops and they were being threatened with ejection. They said they had the first right to purchase shops but everything was done in a clandestine manner.

They said they moved the relevant court where the land mafia gave an undertaking that shopkeepers would not be ejected from shops. Despite this, they said, the land mafia had prevailed upon the municipal administration to issue ejection notices to them.

They said they were now depositing the rent in the court. They warned in case they were ejected from shops, they would stage a hunger strike unto death. They appealed to authorities to restore justice.

They said 14 shopkeepers had already been threatened with ejection. Murali Lal, Ghafoor Pirzado, Akbar Ali, Hafiz Nisar, Mohammad Anwar and Mukhtiar Ahmed spoke on the occasion.

NLF: The president of the National Labour Federation, Sindh, Rana Mehmood Ali has said if President Gen Pervez Musharraf did not give up the post of the army chief by Dec 31, workers will take full part in the "go Musharraf go" movement.

He said Gen Musharraf had promulgated the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 and removal from service ordinance which were against the interests of workers. He said the working class had been protesting against these anti-workers ordinances but the government had paid no heed to these protests.