Malik assures to track down killers

ISLAMABAD: The Senate session was adjourned on Monday to mourn the killing of MQM lawmaker Raza Haider in Karachi.

While the senators were discussing the flood situation in the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the House about the incident in Karachi with a request to adjourn the session for the day as a mark of respect.

Malik hinted that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba could be involved in the killing, saying that the two terrorist organisations have been issuing threats to Haider. The minister said he has sought 24 hours from the MQM to track down the killers. He said the government has formed a joint investigation team and assured the lawmakers that the killers would be arrested.  Malik also said that Haider’s killing was part of conspiracy to destabilise the country.

Senator Haji Adeel of the ANP protested against Malik’s request, saying that his party’s activists were being killed in Karachi on a daily basis but the House was never asked to adjourn. However, Afrasiyab Khattak, also from the ANP, persuaded Senator Adeel to sit down and remain quiet.

Syed Zafar Ali Shah strongly criticised the government for its inability to stop target killings in Karachi. “Such incidents have been happening in Karachi on a daily basis. The House wants to know what the government is doing about it to check target killings,” he said.

Earlier the Senate suspended regular business to discuss the havoc caused by unprecedented floods in the country. Senators from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa protested against, what they called, “inefficiency” of the provincial and federal governments in providing relief to hundreds of thousands of affected people.

Senator Adeel said that two weeks had passed since floods hit the province but nothing has been done by the federal and provincial governments to help the suffering people. He said the federal government is ignoring the Pakhtuns the way it had ignored the Bengalis in the erstwhile East Pakistan.

Senator Tahir Mashhadi demanded the government take effective measures to save the people of Sindh. “Though floods have caused huge damages in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government still has time to minimise damage in Sindh as flood waters head downstream to Sindh,” he added. Senator Ishaq Dar of the PML-N and Professor Ibrahim of the Jamat-e-Islami said that the “deluge is a divine chastisement for our sins.” They asked the people to seek forgiveness from Almighty Allah.

Senator Pervez Rasheed of the PML-N demanded President Zardari call off his scheduled visit to the UK. “If the president goes to the UK, it will be tantamount to Pakistan’s endorsing the statement of the British prime minister who has accused Pakistan of “promoting the export of terror.”

The Senate will meet again on Tuesday morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2010.