MQM protests worker’s ‘disappearance’
Law enforcement agency allegedly picked up Nadeem Qazi on Tuesday
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. PHOTO: FILE.
HYDERABAD:
Protest against the alleged enforced disappearance of Nadeem Qazi, a senior worker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad (BISE) security officer, continued on the second day on Wednesday.
The staff of BISE boycotted work, while the MQM leaders and workers staged demonstrations. Qazi was allegedly whisked away by a law enforcement agency on Tuesday morning. Qazi was picked up from near the BISE main gate, the MQM sources and some employees of the board claimed.
"When they fail to change loyalties [of our workers] by greed, fear and pressure, they resort to such tactics," said MQM leader and MNA Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi. He termed the detention a political victimisation and demanded immediate release of Qazi. Siddiqi added that the MQM has been facing conspiracies aimed at breaking the party or splitting it in factions since it was founded. MQM's Rabita Committee member Abdul Haseeb Khan said that Qazi is not nominated in any police case.
Meanwhile, a protest camp was organised at the BISE admin block and the staff wore black armbands. The board's chairperson, Dr Muhammad Memon, said that the BISE should have been informed if Qazi was wanted in any criminal case. Memon added that he approached the police officials to pursue the case of Qazi's detention but he was not informed why he has been picked up.
The BISE controller examinations, Dr Masroor Ahmed Zai, said that strike of the board employees would affect the assessment of examination papers, as well as those students and parents acquiring mark sheets and certificates. The All Pakistan Clerks Association's Aijaz Kaka said that the protest will be spread to other places if Qazi is not immediately released. He also condemned the raids being carried out at the educational institutions.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2016.
Protest against the alleged enforced disappearance of Nadeem Qazi, a senior worker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad (BISE) security officer, continued on the second day on Wednesday.
The staff of BISE boycotted work, while the MQM leaders and workers staged demonstrations. Qazi was allegedly whisked away by a law enforcement agency on Tuesday morning. Qazi was picked up from near the BISE main gate, the MQM sources and some employees of the board claimed.
"When they fail to change loyalties [of our workers] by greed, fear and pressure, they resort to such tactics," said MQM leader and MNA Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi. He termed the detention a political victimisation and demanded immediate release of Qazi. Siddiqi added that the MQM has been facing conspiracies aimed at breaking the party or splitting it in factions since it was founded. MQM's Rabita Committee member Abdul Haseeb Khan said that Qazi is not nominated in any police case.
Meanwhile, a protest camp was organised at the BISE admin block and the staff wore black armbands. The board's chairperson, Dr Muhammad Memon, said that the BISE should have been informed if Qazi was wanted in any criminal case. Memon added that he approached the police officials to pursue the case of Qazi's detention but he was not informed why he has been picked up.
The BISE controller examinations, Dr Masroor Ahmed Zai, said that strike of the board employees would affect the assessment of examination papers, as well as those students and parents acquiring mark sheets and certificates. The All Pakistan Clerks Association's Aijaz Kaka said that the protest will be spread to other places if Qazi is not immediately released. He also condemned the raids being carried out at the educational institutions.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2016.