KARACHI: #FixIt campaign founder and member of National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Alamgir Khan was released on bail on Sunday night after a brief detention.
Earlier in the day, the activist was beaten and apprehended by police after a clash between FixIt volunteers and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) workers at Teen Talwar.
The protest had been called against “water and sewerage issues” faced by Karachi and was called outside Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani’s office at Teen Talwar; however, PPP workers gathered at the location before the FixIt campaigners after which the two groups got into an altercation.
During the ruckus, a few workers belonging to both parties were injured. The FixIt head claimed that the PPP workers had attacked using batons.
The police reached the scene where it arrested several people including Alamgir Khan after which he was taken to Darakhshan police station.
Inspector General (DIG) South Sharjeel Kharal, while speaking to a local media outlet, said that the police were “compelled” to resort to baton charge as some men clashed with the police. He added that the “designated” place for press conferences and demonstrations was the Karachi Press Club while the police had reports that the campaigners were also planning to throw trash outside the minister’s house
According to reports, the police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Alamgir and 38 other persons over charges of riots, attack on police and injuring the officers under Sections 147, 148, 149, 337(A)(i), 353, and 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
On the other hand, Alamgir Khan alleged that only the PPP workers who had created chaos and initiated violence. “They were also the ones clashing with the police,” he said.
A FixIt activist further added that they were targeted by both the PPP workers and police. He alleged that the police “joined hands” with the PPP workers whereas PPP workers had attacked the demonstrators without provocation.
DIG Kharal, while denying such a thing, said that the police had also arrested PPP workers.
Moreover, Saeed Ghani, who has been criticised by FixIt campaigners for ignoring water and sewage issues despite repeated requests for a solution, said that there are “better ways to record a protest”.
“They draw pictures on manhole covers, they stage cheap protests,” he said.
Later in the evening, the PPP leader visited the jailed party workers and expressed solidarity with them. “Political workers are never ones to fear being jailed. The way the workers have been wrongfully detained will not dampen our spirits,” he said while adding that he would approach the courts to secure the workers’ release.
Earlier in February, Fixit campaigners threw sewerage water at the gate of Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Shah’s official residence in protest of the dirty water that constantly remains outside houses of the port city’s poor.
The campaigners said that the area has been in this condition for the past nine years and many politicians who win from this area have been using the common man by playing on his emotions by promising to fix the issue; however, they conveniently ignore the people’s plight once they get elected.
Later on the Fixit facebook page, screenshots of the protest activity were shared with the caption: When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Fixit came to prominence in 2016, when Karachi citizens spray-painted the portrait of then Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah next to gaping potholes, ditches and heaps of piles on the side of Karachi’s much-travelled University Road to draw his attention towards his duties that he had been neglecting.