ANP demands suo motu notice of Karachi killings

ANP legislator brushes aside impression that target killings were a fight between ANP and MQM.

ISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Tuesday demanded the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the target killings in Karachi.

In the Senate’s session on Tuesday, ANP legislator Zahid Khan brushed aside the impression that the target killings were actually a fight between the ANP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

He likened the killings to the events in Karachi on May 12, 2007, when a number of people had lost their lives as then deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was due to arrive in Karachi. “Had the culprits [of May 12] been held accountable, the situation would not have worsened in Karachi,” Khan said.

Referring to a joint investigation report on the law and order situation in Karachi, he questioned why the government had not made the report public or acted upon its recommendations.  “I have [a copy of] that report and can reveal its contents but why is the government sitting idle even after the report. If the provincial governments have failed to control the situation in Karachi and Balochistan, why is the federal government not acting on it?”

Senator SM Zafar also criticised the government’s handling of state affairs. Quoting a recent statement by former minister of state for defence production Abdul Qayyum Jatoi about equality in ‘corruption’, he said that corruption was rampant and was restraining international donors from contributing for flood relief.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2010.