December 04, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 5, 1429

KARACHI, Dec 3: Opposition members of the City Council moved a resolution jointly signed by all groups on Wednesday on the recent acts of violence in Karachi which they said claimed more than 50 lives and left 180 others wounded.

However, a debate on the resolution could not start as the house suspended business at the insistence of the treasury benches in view of the death of sitting city councillor Shahbaz Hussain.

Subsequently, a resolution offering condolences on the death of the late councillor was tabled in the house. City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, who was chairing the session, informed the house of the death of Councillor Hussain on Nov 28.

She also noted that due to Hussain’s sudden death, the council secretariat remained shut on Nov 29. Paying tribute to the late councillor, Jalil lauded his services to the council as chairman of colleges and secondary schools and later as a member of the Fishermen Co-operative Society board.

The house then unanimously adopted a resolution eulogising the services of the late Hussain.

After the adoption of the resolution, opposition leaders Rafiq Ahmed, Abdul Razak and Juman Darwan drew the attention of the chair towards the growing incidents of violence in the city. They submitted that innocent people were being killed and their property looted. The opposition further asserted that law-enforcement agencies had failed to maintain law and order and protect the lives and property of the citizens.

The councillors insisted that the situation was serious and merited immediate debate. House leader Asif Siddiqui, however, opposed the move, saying that the proceedings of the house should be put off in view of the death of a sitting council member. He pointed out that this had been always done in the past.

The convener agreed with the house leader and then postponed the council meeting indefinitely.

Members of the opposition strongly protested against this action and later held a joint press conference. The press conference was addressed by the Al-khidmat group leader Rafiq Ahmed and Awan Dost group deputy leader Juman Darwan. Both strongly criticised the convener’s decision to postpone the council meeting at a time when they said the city was burning and lawlessness was rampant.

The opposition leaders argued that there was no justification for postponing the session, “that too merely on a pretext.” They asserted that the house had already adopted a condolence resolution on the death of the late councillor.

They then accused the treasury members of bypassing the opposition’s resolution on the issue of violence in the city. Both leaders claimed that more than 50 people had been killed and over 100 others wounded in various acts of violence which took place in different parts of the city.

Ahmed and Darwan questioned the role of law-enforcement agencies during the violence and particularly blamed the police for giving the “miscreants” a free hand. They asserted that it was significant that the situation in Orangi Town normalised after the transfer of the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned.

Calling for the transfer of all SHOs in the city, both leaders urged the Sindh government to compensate all those whose shops were looted or properties burnt. They said steps should be taken for the rehabilitation of the affected people.

The two opposition leaders also made an impassioned appeal to the media to expose the killers and urged the government to take action against those responsible for destroying the peace of Karachi.

They concluded by reiterating their demand for the city Naib Nazim to call an urgent session of the council to discuss the prevailing situation in the city.