Forum for debate: MQM summons assembly session after arrest of former MPA

Party officials feel the ongoing operation is targeting them alone.

KARACHI: Once again, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has submitted an application in the provincial assembly to summon a session and discuss the ongoing operation by the police and Rangers.

On Thursday, party spokesperson Faisal Subzwari, who is also the opposition leader in the assembly, filed the requisition against what he called a targeted operation against the MQM. He was addressing a press conference a day after the arrest of the party’s former MPA, Nadeem Hashmi.

Subzwari felt that the ongoing operation in the city had become controversial. “It seems as if the Rangers and the police have started the operation against the MQM only,” he said. “We have expressed our reservations with the federal interior minister because our workers and leaders are being arrested on the basis of their political affiliation.”

Subzwari, who was accompanied by MQM’s parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed and other MPAs, claimed that law enforcers are reluctant to take action against the real criminals. “Not only has Nadeem Hashmi been implicated in a false case but the police have also conducted a raid to arrest sitting MPA Jamal Ahmed,” he pointed out.

“When the paramilitary force raided and started an operation in Yousuf Plaza, some of the most-wanted criminals and terrorists were available very close by,” he said. “The police and Rangers, however, did not take action.”

According to him, more than 100 MQM workers have been arrested in the past few days. Referring to recent incidents of extortion in Old City, Subzwari said, “Extortionists have once again sped up their activities in those areas by sending ‘bhatta chits’ to the business community.” Those details have also been provided to the police but the government machinery is unwilling to move against those criminals, he said.

He admitted that they have yet to convey their reservations to the Sindh chief minister formally but he insisted the CM was aware of the nature of the targeted operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2013.