HYDERABAD: A number of distraught traders belonging to the main cloth market of Hyderabad staged a token hunger stril(e on Thursday against the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) for not draining the stagnant sewage and removing garbage from outside their shops for a long time.

Carrying banners and placards outside the local press club, they shouted vociferous slogans against `inactive` Hyderabad Mayor Tayyab Hussain.

Leaders of different trade bodies,including Haji Aslam Ayub, Iqbal Ashfaque Qureshi, Abdul Aziz and Abdul Qadir Khatri, told reporters that they had repeatedly complained to Mayor Tayyab Hussain about the standing sewage and heaps of garbage, but in vain.

They alleged that the mayor, who was `inactive and incompetent`, was unable to fulfil duties and often adopted a rude attitude towards complainants instead of resolving their genuine and real civic problems.

They said their business was destroyed and their sales dropped as shoppers avoided visiting the main cloth market owing to the foul smell emanating from sewage and garbage.

They said they sat idle throughout the day due to the lacklustre response of shoppers.

They threatened to hold a shutter-down strike and protest sit-in on Hyder Chowk if their problems were not resolved on priority.

PST meeting Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) leader Maulana Khalid Hassan Attari has urged the government and institutions concerned to conduct a comprehensive investigation into public funds released to the mayor for Hyderabad.

Maulana was speaking at a meeting of workers at the party office.

Calling the mayor `incompetent`, he stressed that the mayor and his team must be investigated thoroughly.

He said Hyderabad presented a sorry state of affairs, including dilapidated roads, ponds of dirty water, fragile infrastructure, destroyed sewerage system, garbage at the corner of every street and road, stray dogs, contaminated drinking water and other civic problems.