The parliamentarians in the lower house of parliament on Friday expressed doubts over the government’s sincerity to resolve the worsening law and order situation and targeted killings in Karachi with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) going a step ahead in saying that the federal government was by-design deteriorating the situation in the country’s financial hub.
Taking part in the debate on law and order in the country, particularly in Karachi and Quetta, MQM’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Farooq Sattar said Karachi was intentionally being ruined by the government. “It is either the government’s incompetence or the government itself is behind the worsening law and order in Karachi,” he said. He expressed concern that the federal government was patronising criminals and gangsters in Karachi to use them against political opponents. “Karachi has been given to the underworld. At least 15 percent of the police stations in the city are used by criminals as dens and the government is by design pushing Karachi’s population into anarchy,” he said, adding that he had a list of 500 criminals who were directly involved in “the Karachi massacre”.
He said the MQM was being victimised for parting ways with the federal government. “The mafia is given a freehand in Karachi to politically limit the MQM in the city,” he claimed. Sattar demanded the formation of a parliamentary fact-finding committee and judicial commission on Karachi. The MQM leader said a judicial commission should also be formed to unmask the elements responsible for the massacre that took place in Qasba Colony, Orangi, Malir, Landhi and Kati Pahari areas.
He said compensation should also be given to the families of the deceased. He said police had failed to control the situation in Karachi and “greater powers should be given to the Rangers and the army could also be called in per the constitution to maintain the law and order”.PPP MNA Mehmood Hayat Khan Tochi took exception to the visits of the US ambassador to Pakistan to Balochistan and South Punjab, saying “these powers were meddling in the internal affairs of the country”. The ruling party legislator said he was “unable to understand why the US ambassador is feeling so much pain for the people of Balochistan and South Punjab”. He said the US wanted to open its consulates across Pakistan and demanded the government take notice of it.