SUKKUR: Activists of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl took out a rally which ended in a demonstration and sitin outside the press club in Jacobabad on Thursday in protest against pre-poll rigging in upcoming local government election.

Local party leaders said in their speeches on the occasion that the government was trying to rig LG election ahead of poll day through different tactics. JUI-F-backed candidates were being pressurised to pull out of LG race throughaconspiracyinordertoletPPP candidates win unopposed, they alleged.

They said that returning ofhcers were being used by vested interests and said that nomination form of a party candidate in Thull, Abdul Aziz, was misplaced during scrutiny.They warned that rigging would not be acceptable at any cost and demanded all required arrangements should be made to stop rigging and Rangers personnel be deployed in every polling station.

Commissioner dissatisfied with NGOs Sukkur Division Commissioner Mohammad Abbas Baloch on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over performance of NGOs and said most NGOs existed in name only except a handful few which were doing the good work.

According to an official handout, the commissioner made the observation while presiding over a meeting of the officers of social welfare department and representatives of local NGOs at his office.

He said the NGOs should cooperate with government departments and actively work for reopening closedschools, improving education standards, providing school furniture, uniforms and books for students. He directed the ofhcers to keep a check on NGOs and improve its monitoring process.

He stressed the need for creating awareness among people about child labour and sending children to schools.

The NGOs should work to encourage parents to educate girls because if a mother was educated she would help the rest of her family get education, he said.

He said the performance of local NGOs was largely unsatisfactory as even during recent flood none of the NGOs cooperated with the administration.

At the end of the meeting, director of schools education, Zaibun Nisa Mangi distributed cash among 70 needy students of the Child Protection School, Bunder Road.