PML-N stance: ‘This regime has converted Karachi into Beirut’

Party teams to distribute food and water to violence-hit areas.

KARACHI:

The Sindh government has failed to control the situation in Karachi, said the Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, on Friday.

The government's administrative weakness has led to the situation. The government is hiding its administrative weaknesses by putting the responsibility on other political parties, said Khan. He announced that he would hold a peace conference and invite all the stakeholders to bring the situation under control.

"There is a war-like situation in the city. The government is caught up in political statements, but has failed to control the situation, and provide security to the people," said the deputy speaker. "Bodies are thrown on the roads, buses are being attacked with hand grenades, people are hostages in their houses and are being rescued in police armoured vehicles," he said. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) strongly condemns the situation, the deputy speaker added.

PML-N's teams will visit the affected areas of the city to try to provide food and water to the people who are stranded in their homes. "If there were rule of law in the city and the police and security personnel recruitments were made on merit, then the condition of the city would not be like this," Khan said. "The government should transfer powers to the Rangers and police to control the situation."

Talking about the PML-N coalition with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Khan said that they had worked with the Pakistan Peoples Party for the betterment of the people and the country. "We do not want to blame anyone," he said.

The PML-N is in contact with the MQM and will talk to every political party which concurs with its agenda for peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2011.