Attacks on Express: MQM files resolution in Sindh Assembly

The resolution also advised taking appropriate measures for protection of the media house.

ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI:

As Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) submitted a resolution in the Sindh Assembly against the onslaught on the Express Media Group and the killing of its three workers, the federal government drew flak in the Senate on Monday for its ‘mysterious silence’ over the acts of aggression.

The MQM demanded that the Sindh government arrest the perpetrators involved in the ‘cowardly incident’ and provide financial assistance to the families of the victims. It also advised taking appropriate measures for protection of the media house.

The resolution — moved by the party’s MPA Khalid Ahmed — also asked the provincial government to devise a plan to take action against militants and their mentors, ‘who have taken shelter in several areas of Karachi’.



“This was the third attack on Express Media [Group].  It looks like the incumbent government is unwilling to do anything except issue statements of condemnation,” Khalid Ahmed said in remarks to the media.

He said the provincial authorities had not made any concrete efforts to provide protection to the Express Media Group in spite of the fact that its offices had come under attack twice before.

“At the upcoming assembly session, we will take up the issue and possibly work out a security plan for journalists and other workers affiliated with the media,” he said.

Separately, opposition lawmakers in the upper house also took the federal government to task for its mysterious silence over the increasingly “one-sided war waged by militants against security forces, media and the general public.”

They also condemned the suicide blasts on the security forces in Bannu and Rawalpindi as well as the attack on the DSNG of Express News in Karachi. The House also offered fateha for the departed souls.

Opposition members also wanted to know why the government was indecisive and silent over the escalating attack by the TTP.



“Don’t make our armed forces sitting ducks. Use them against those who challenge our writ, who don’t accept our constitution and who don’t respect our sovereignty,” said the MQM Senator Col (retd) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi.

“What are you waiting for? Why are you begging for talks when they refuse.  Why are you giving them chance to reinforce and regroup themselves,” said the former military man.

Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Afraiab Khattak noted that though militants had established a ‘state within a state’, the government continued to be indecisive.

“Is this a banana republic or a nuclear-armed country with a powerful military?” he asked. According to him, militants from other countries were entrenched on Pakistani soil and were waging war against the state.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani said the government was in a ‘state of flux’ and had given a free hand to the terrorists to operate in the country.

The PPP senator regretted that no serious effort was made to call a joint parliamentary session and discuss the security situation of the country. “APC is not the substitute of parliament and every policy should be discussed and formulated here,” he said. The house was later prorogued for an indefinite period.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2014.