MQM sends a message: ‘Leaving the govt isn’t the solution’

Memon says people of all parties are being targeted, should sit down, figure out the ‘third power’ behind attacks.

KARACHI:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPA Raza Haroon has said that if quitting the government will help improve Karachi’s situation, then the MQM is ready to do so - but this is not the solution.

Haroon spoke to reporters outside the Sindh Assembly, referring to a letter written to the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah about the state of law and order in Karachi.

MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Faisal Subzwari, who wrote the letter, told The Express Tribune that it included names of the 45 party workers and supporters who have been killed since May 7.

“We have asked for the people responsible, who are known, to be arrested,” he said, adding that the criminals were targeting the party and the city’s economy.

Express News reported Subzwari as saying that his party trusts the chief minister but a criminal should be called a criminal. Subzwari reiterated the party’s stance that criminals should not be treated as leaders. The MQM has been critical in the past of what it believes is political patronage of criminal groups.

Haroon and Subzwari also met the Pakistan Peoples Party’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Pir Mazharul Haq, who reassured them that the government would take action. However, Subzwari said they have not received any response from the chief minister as yet.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that extortionists were not restricted to one area of Karachi and they would work to remove the MQM’s reservations.

He said that it was unfair to say that the government was not doing anything, highlighting that the police and Rangers were conducting targeted action based on the government’s order. According to Memon, the government is serious about establishing law and order. He said that since people of all political parties were being targeted, the parties should sit down together and figure out which ‘third power’ was behind target killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2012.