Growing terrorism: Sharjeel hits out at Centre for its ‘inaction’

Says APC should have focused on surrendering arms, instead of ceasefire.

HYDERABAD: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon has asked the federal government to take cue from the Sindh government and start taking action against the Taliban.

“If the provincial government can act against terrorists why can’t the federal government?” he questioned at a news conference on Sunday.

He came down hard on what he called the federal government’s indifference to terrorist attacks and said that the all-party conference (APC), instead of focusing on ceasefire, should have prioritised the surrender of weapons in its agenda.



“The terrorist network is growing stronger and the federal government needs to act seriously against it,” he said.

Memon said the federal government’s inaction had made terrorists feel that they could impose their ideology on others.

He said the FIA was documenting illegal immigrants, primarily the Afghan refugees living in Karachi, but the exercise was yet to be completed. Memon said the effort to enlist Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s stalwart and former federal minister Liaquat Jatoi in the folds of Pakistan Peoples Party had come to naught.

“The local leadership in Dadu [Jatoi’s native district] is opposed to his joining and the party takes all decisions with consensus of its leaders and workers,” he said.

Former Sindh education minister Pir Mazharul Haq wanted to bring Jatoi into the PPP, however, the party’s federal and provincial lawmakers had objected to the proposal.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2014.