MQM asks PM to form inquiry commission to probe killings

PM Nawaz Sharif meets party delegation.

KARACHI: As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered probe into the killings of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, the party leaders have urged the premier to form an inquiry commission.

"We urge the prime minister to announce a commission to hear the cases of extrajudicial killings and missing persons," said Rabita Committee in-charge Qamar Mansoor while speaking to the media at Governor House on Friday. "People should be allowed to complain against arrests and raids." MQM leaders Haider Abbas Rizvi, Senator Babar Ghauri, MNA Farooq Sattar and Mansoor attended a meeting with PM Sharif and other officials of the Sindh government, which included leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). After the meeting, Mansoor told journalists said that their doors were open for dialogue with any party. "If any PPP leader wants to talk to us, then we are ready for dialogue but they have to mend their political ways and not make fun when we bring the bodies of our workers to Chief Minister House."

During the meeting, the prime minister also told the Sindh IG to visit the families of the victims and that it was his responsibility, said Mansoor.

Meanwhile, party leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said that the prime minister has assured that no law enforcement agencies' personnel in plainclothes will make any arrests. "The prime minister has assured us that no arrests will be made by officers in plainclothes," said Rizvi. "If that continues, it will be a violation."

Abbas said the prime minister was displeased over the workers' killings and has demanded a report immediately.

Meanwhile, the families of deceased MQM workers Faraz Alam, Rehan Ahmed and Sohail Ahmed met the prime minister, while the families of the 18 missing activists met the premier's delegation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2015.