Just hours before re-polling in selected polling stations of the NA-250 constituency in Karachi, unidentified motorcyclists gunned down a senior female office bearer of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) outside her house in Karachi’s affluent Defence area.
According to police, PTI Sindh Senior Vice President Zahra Shahid Hussain was shot dead outside her house in Defence Phase IV late on Saturday night. The motive of the attack could not be immediately ascertained, with some police officials suspecting it to be a murder during robbery while others termed it a targeted killing.
Senior Superintendent of Police Nasir Aftab said that initial findings pointed to a case of a purse snatching gone wrong.
He said that per Hussain’s daughter, her mother got into their car to leave. The driver wheeled the car out and was locking up the gate behind her when two men on a motorcycle pulled up and tried to snatch her purse. “When she resisted they shot her.”
Hussain was immediately taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Hospital but she succumbed to her wounds. Doctors said a bullet to her head had caused her death.
Hussain was a founding member of the party and was also the chief polling agent for the NA-250 constituency, which has become controversial after the PTI accused its rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement of rigging the election.
While the PTI demanded re-polling in some areas of the constituency and staged a sit-in protest for seven days at Teen Talwar Chowk, the MQM had been demanding re-election in the entire constituency and staged protests of its own. However, the Election Commission stuck its ground and ordered re-polling on only 43 polling stations. The ECP decision angered the MQM and they announced to boycott the re-polling, calling it unfair to the party’s mandate.
On the first day of the PTI sit-in, MQM Chairman Altaf Hussain had given a veiled threat to PTI supporters to call off their protest or risk retribution by supporters of his party. He had also demanded separating Karachi from Pakistan if the party’s mandate was unacceptable to the Establishment and parties opposed to the MQM.
However, the MQM chairman was quick to condemn Zohra Hussain’s murder.
In a statement issued from London, Altaf extended condolences to the PTI leadership, Zohra’s family and party workers and prayed for her eternal peace.
Demanding immediate justice, Altaf said her killers should be brought to book and given exemplary punishment.
IMRAN ACCUSES ALTAF
But in Lahore, PTI Chairman Imran Khan held the MQM chief directly responsible for the murder of the senior party leader, who is the widow of a former ambassador Shahid Hussain.
“I also hold the British Govt responsible as I had warned them abt Br citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threat to kill PTI workers,” Imran tweeted soon after Zohra Hussain’s murder was reported on TV channels.
PTI Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said that PTI workers and supporters faced a serious threat in Karachi following Zohra Hussain’s murder in cold blood.
Arif Alvi, the PTI candidate in NA-250, appealed his supporters to remain calm.