ISLAMABAD: Senate proceedings on Monday saw the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) throw allegations at each other, accusing one another of politics of expediency, and the former demanded a Swat-like military operation in Karachi to bring peace there.
Taking part in debate on the law and order situation, ANP Senator Haji Adeel said, “Karachi needs to be de-weaponised urgently … police have failed there and the Rangers are not being empowered for this purpose. This situation demands that Karachi should be handed over to the military for a few months”.
The ANP senator said that killings in Karachi were affecting the overall economy of the country. Tacitly pointing towards the MQM, he accused ‘some’ political parties of protecting certain criminal groups, which were responsible for disrupting peace in the provincial metropolis. Adeel also said that some foreign elements were also involved in the Karachi situation.
“Around five million foreigners belonging to India, Bangladesh, Iran and some other countries are living in Karachi and most of them are involved in criminal activities because they have the support of some local people. Instead of purging the city of such foreign elements, they have been illegally given Pakistani passports and identity cards,” he said.
“We have come to know that some criminals come to Karachi by one flight in the morning and go back by the next available flight after committing heinous crimes,” Adeel said, calling for repossession of land – including public property like green belts and parks – occupied by the land mafia in the city during the last couple of years.
Responding to Adeel’s speech, MQM’s Federal Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri paid back, saying that those who had opposed the idea of Pakistan were targeting Bengalis, whose forefathers had sacrificed their lives for the creation of Pakistan. Ghauri said that the law and order situation in other parts of the country was also deteriorating but nobody wanted to discuss it.
“The situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is worse than anywhere else in the country … most of the suicide attack take place in the province. The people, who took pride in claiming that weapons are their ornaments, are now talking of de-weaponising Karachi. The people who have been given a share in power at the behest of foreign powers are claiming to be the representative of the Pakhtuns,” the MQM minister said.
Supporting Adeel’s demand, ANP Senator Afrasiab Khattak also called for a military operation in Karachi. “If a military operation can be launched in Swat and other areas, why can’t it be launched in Karachi?” he questioned.
