SUKKUR: Artists, poets and writers got together in Sukkur to protest the district administration’s decision to give the Al Mehran Culture Centre on lease to Humayun Gymkhana. They included Ayaz Gul, Dr Adl Soomro, Akhtar Dargahi, Dr Gulzar Rahi, Aziz Jibran, musician Shahid Bazami, Hub Ali, Barkat Ali Bhat, Ghazanfar Channa, Muhammad Sardar and Fahim Ahmed.
They condemned the district and taluka municipal Sukkur city officials and demanded that the decision to ‘hand over the culture centre to the land mafia’ should be immediately revoked.
Meanwhile, the press secretary of the Mehran Arts Council, Shaukat Rahi, announced that he would submit a petition in the Sindh High Court against the decision to lease the culture centre.
The former district nazim, Syed Nasir Hussain, spent Rs1 million from the district budget on the repairs and renovation of the culture centre. According to Rahi, land mafia associated with the ruling party had acquired the plot to get rid of the culture centre and construct a plaza there.
“We will not let the culture centre be destroyed at any cost,” vowed Rahi, adding that together with the civil society they would launch a movement to save the culture centre.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2010
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