Awami National Party calls for army intervention again

ANP Sindh president for army intervention in the city to end what he said was the snatching of hides at gunpoint.

KARACHI: Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh president Shahi Syed has called for army intervention in the city to end what he said was the snatching of hides at gunpoint.

Giving a news briefing at the Bacha Khan Markaz on Friday, Shahi Syed demanded the army “de-weaponise” Karachi. The ANP does not believe in the “politics of bodies and hides”, he said. “We are stressing de-weaponisation because Karachi has become one heap of arms and ammunition,” he told Dunya News. “I am tired of taking names. Our only demand is that we rid Karachi of all sorts of legal and illegal weapons with the help of the army.”

Shahi Syed said that everyone would have to make sacrifices to turn Karachi into a weapon-free zone. “Karachi should be made into a city of trade,” he said. “There are no weapons in Dubai or Malaysia and ridding Karachi of weapons will help the entire country economically.” Denying that weapons are brought here from other provinces, Shahi Syed said that this was no longer the case. “Nowadays weapons are imported and there are several containers of weapons that go missing from the port.”

If you calculate the number of missing containers, even those belonging to Nato, we can estimate how many weapons are actually present in the city, he added.Shahi Syed also suggested that a bill on de-weaponisation should also be passed in the assembly. Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that collecting hides has become a political issue. “If three, four people have to die every year from clashes over hides, then we will impose a ban on organisations collecting hides,” he said. The government will appoint a trust to collect hides in that case, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.