MQM walks out of Sindh Assembly to protest 'increasing crime' in Karachi

MQM MPA links crime to gangs operating in Lyari.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPAs staged a walkout from the Sindh Assembly on Thursday to protest the increase in crime in the city.

Prior to the walkout, MQM MPA Tahir Qureshi linked crime to the gangs operating in Lyari. He said that the areas of Garden and ‘plaza’ were closed down because of attacks on and threats to traders. He alleged that 20 traders were currently kidnapped who were “being kept hostage in Chakiwara, Lyari”.

He said that traders were being killed for refusing to pay extortionists and said that Karachi was being ‘destroyed’.

After his speech, the MQM Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Sindh Assembly Faisal Subzwari addressed the speaker and informed him that the party was staging a token walkout to mark their protest, and had also similarly protested in the National Assembly and Senate.

The protest came after the MQM’s elected representatives in the National and Sindh Assembly issued statements earlier this week, linking crime in Karachi to the banned Peoples Amn Committee and calling the lack of action by law enforcement agencies as an act of ‘criminal negligence’.