KARACHI – Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a joint press conference at the Governor’s House here that the People’s Amn Committee (PAC) would be banned and all offices of the organisation would be sealed off, while action will be taken against all criminals hiding within the folds of various political parties.
The decision was taken earlier during a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and a MQM delegation headed by Dr Farooq Sattar. A committee, comprising two provincial ministers each from the PPP and the MQM, was also formed to recommend suggestions for improvement in law and order in the city. Malik will coordinate the committee himself and it will be headed by Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad.
Malik also said that both the parties would refrain from trading allegations against each other. “Intelligence agencies had warned that a conspiracy has been hatched to destabilise Pakistan. Some elements want to derail democracy as before, but their conspiracies will be thwarted,” he said. Malik also said that all offices of the Baloch nationalist organisations would be shut down in Karachi and the rest of the province.
The MQM announced an end to its boycott of the assembly sessions. Sources said that the PAC might have been banned, but a similar group had already been formed named the “Lyari Amn Committee” with members from the Katchi Rabita Council, PAC and some Punjabi residents of the Lyari area. The sources said that officials and activists of the PAC would now be considered formal members of the PPP, while the “ban” was merely to close down its offices.
PAC spokesman Shakib Baloch told Pakistan Today that while the committee itself had been abolished because of the MQM’s reservations, its erstwhile members hoped that the MQM would now trust the PPP’s methodology of inducting members into the party’s folds. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Ebad and Dr Farooq Sattar also addressed the press conference.
