Calls for Gilani and Malik’s resignation echo in NA

Following PPP government’s somersaults on the local government system, its failure to control the law and order in Karachi and Quetta, allegations of corruption and bad governance, National Assembly members from the government and its coalition partners, on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Although opposition parties have been asking Malik to resign over his failure to maintain law and order across the country, it came as a rude shock for the PPP when its own member from Quetta, Nasir Ali Shah, asked the prime minister to resign. Participating in a debate on law and order, Shah said the government had failed to resolve all issues, including targeted killings in the country, and asked the prime minister to resign on moral grounds. He said that any senior party leader should replace Gilani.
“When I protested last year over targeted killings in Quetta, Yousaf Raza Gilani asked me to end the protest and assured me of discussing the violence in Quetta and taking concrete measures in this regard. But since then, neither the PM nor any of his representative has contacted me,” Shah lamented, adding that just holding cabinet meetings in Quetta could not bring peace to the city. He said the government was treating Quetta and Balochistan as “outcasts”. ANP’s Pervaiz Khan said Interior Minister Rehman Malik should resign and no one should expect that he could bring peace to Karachi and other parts of the country. “No one should expect that an inept and incompetent person like Malik will bring peace to Karachi. He should resign immediately.” Lashing out at the PPP over its somersaults over the local government system in Sindh, Khan said the government itself was ridiculing democracy.

PPP’s Nabeel Gabol also criticised the government, saying it did not have the will to restore peace to Karachi.
He said Malik had never asked any PPP MNA from Karachi for suggestions to bring peace to the city. “We ourselves are involved in Karachi’s lawlessness. We do not have the will for peace as we always prefer politics of compromises to peace in the city. Let me clarify, peace can be restored within 24 hours in Karachi if we muster the will for it,” Gabol said. Without naming anyone, the PPP leader criticised the political approach of certain leaders.
“There are certain leaders who first make inflammatory speeches, get dozens of people killed in reaction and then seek apologies,” he said.
Meanwhile, PML-Q leader Amir Muqam said Karachi should be handed over to the army to carry out a Swat-like operation in the city. He added that it was totally unjustified to abruptly abolish the magistracy in Karachi and Hyderabad and suggested that reforms should be brought into the system. PML-N’s Abdul Qadir Baloch also criticised the government for not taking the law and order into control, particularly in Balochistan, while his party colleague Ayaz Amir criticised the abrupt changes in Sindh’s administrative system.