KARACHI, Sept 17: The entire country is going through a period of anarchy but the situation is even worse in Karachi.This observation was made by the central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Naib Amir of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, during a press conference at the Idara Noor-i-Haq on Monday.
Referring to the MQM chief’s proposal of holding a roundtable conference of political parties to steer the country out of the current crisis, the MMA leader asked why there was lawlessness in the province when the MQM was enjoying absolute power in the urban areas of the province and all the key departments were held by MQM ministers.
Quoting the MQM chief as saying that anti-government lawyers would soon be fixed, Prof Ghafoor said that after the statement two lawyers were gunned down in Karachi. Innocent students of the University of Karachi had been brutally killed but no action had been taken by the government so far, he deplored.
The MMA leader said that people had been arrested for violation of Section 144 but no efforts had been made to arrest the culprits responsible for such heinous crimes.
He alleged that General Pervez Musharraf had given a free hand to the MQM to continue its killing spree in the city as he needed their support for his re-election.
Prof Ghafoor also criticised the government over the sky-rocketing prices of daily use commodities. He said that poverty, inflation and unemployment had been an all-time high but the rulers seemed to be least bothered about the problems of the people and had only been concentrating on the re-election of President Pervez Musharraf, who had been misusing all the institutions of the country for his personal gains.
Criticising a recent notification of the election commission, the JI leader said that despite the fact that the issue of holding of two offices by General Musharraf was being decided by the Supreme Court, the EC had issued a notification stating that Musharraf could hold two offices at a time.
He deplored that Karachi had been turned into a “no-go area” for the opposition.
Prof Ghafoor urged the relevant authorities to restore law and order in the country and take to account all those responsible for the situation.
Holding the students’ wing of the Muttahida, APMSO, responsible for the killings of IJT students, PML-N leader Saleem Zia termed the violent incident a continuation of the May 12 mayhem.
Nasrullah Shaji, MPA of the MMA, blamed the APMSO and MQM for unleashing a reign of terror in educational institutions by targeting innocent students. He said that despite approaching all government functionaries, an FIR had not been registered by police nor action had been initiated against those involved in the murder of students.
Siddique Rathore of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) said that the entire nation had pinned its hopes on the judiciary. He urged the judiciary to play its due role to steer the country out of this turmoil.
