Throngs of protestors took to the street on Sunday when Qaumi Awami Tehreek Shikarpur [QAT] organised a rally at Lakhi Dar Shikarpur against the city being turned into a garbage point. Demonstrators spoke against the corruption committed in the city’s mega projects and put forward demands to address the high inflation, low gas pressure, deadly disputes and the suspension of monthly salaries of Lady Health Workers. The protestors also chanted to regularise the Municipal Committee Employees working of daily-wages, suffering for years. Speakers including Din Muhammad Shaikh, Advocate Zafar Channa, Zahid Bhanbhro, Zaheer Junejo and Syed Wajid Ali Shah addressed the occasion and expressed their displeasure over the failure of Shikarpur Police in resolving deadly longstanding disputes between at least 10 tribes, because of which lawlessness has spiked in the area. The people of Shikarpur were said to have been deprived of their fundamental rights while the city was turned into a mound of garbage due to corruption in mega projects. Speakers also talked about the absence of a proper drainage line and a proper system of roads as well as the acute shortage of gas pressure. They alleged that the whole city had been paralysed because its elected representatives and bureaucrats had failed to deliver. Massive crowds chanted that the ‘gutter’ politics being done in Shikarpur was sheer injustice to its people. QAT leaders announced plans to arrange an All Parties Conference [APC] on March 31 wherein an agitation schedule would be deliberated upon to resolve the civic issues of the city. A large number of QAT workers participated in the rally carrying placards inscribed with their demands. They also mourned the deaths of a large number of villagers due to deadly disputes in Shikarpur. Published in Daily Times, March 25th 2019.