There were calls in both the National Assembly and the Senate across party lines for security agencies to behave and for severe action against the guilty. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: After their two questionable deadly shootings in 23 days, paramilitary law-enforcers came under fire in an outraged parliament on Thursday, prompting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to promise a personal oversight of a probe into the latest killing of a young man in Karachi on Wednesday.

There were calls in both the National Assembly and the Senate across party lines for security agencies to behave and for severe action against the guilty after lawmakers interrupted budget debates to protest at the Karachi killing whose television footage showed a member of the Rangers force twice shooting a man pleading for mercy, though the force said it was an armed bandit who was gunned down in an “encounter” at a park.

Speaking briefly in the National Assembly, the prime minister described the Karachi incident as “a matter of concern for the whole nation” as he tried to calm tempers of members, who also recalled the May 17 killing of five Chechens, including three women, by paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and police at Kharotabad, outside Quetta.

“I will look into it at personal level, and the culprits will be brought to justice,” Mr Gilani said about the Wednesday evening shooting, suggesting the matter would not be left to the Sindh provincial government or his own interior ministry in view of the intensity of the outcry over the role of security agencies.

But the prime minister was unhappy over what he called “abusive language” used by a member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, about the armed forces’ personnel and got those words expunged from the record of the proceedings by Speaker Fehmida Mirza.

This sparked more anger from the hawkish lawmaker from Lahore, before a senior PML-N figure, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, made a polite but rhetorical speech, which also criticised the role of the armed forces in former East Pakistan before the December 1971 surrender and in Balochistan and finally telling them: “You will have to surrender before the nation.”

The issue was first raised by members of the government-allied Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the simultaneous sittings of the two houses of parliament and was later picked up by those of other parties, including the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, its new ally Pakistan Muslim League-Q and opposition Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F.

The speaker too called the Karachi killing a ‘brutal’ and ‘condemnable act’, which she said the government must inquire into, after MQM’s Abdul Qadir Khanzada drew the attention of the house to the incident and appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari and the prime minister to order an inquiry.

PPP’s Fakhr-un-Nisa Khokhar called it an extra-judicial killing, which she said was murder.

It was after a PML-N token walkout against what one of its member, Abdul Qadir Baloch, called ‘sabotage’ of a planned trip by his party chief Nawaz Sharif to Balochistan by delaying a PIA flight to Quetta on Wednesday and a couple of speeches in the budget debate that PML-N’s Mr Rafiq came with his noisy outburst against what he called ‘riasati badmash’ (state scoundrels) – besides some other descriptions that were expunged – and demanded trial of the shooters by an anti-terrorism court and resignation by the army general heading the Rangers.

Mr Hashmi said nobody was blaming institutions “but individuals who ruin institutions” and asked: “Who will save these institutions? Our shoulders have worn out giving support to these institutions.”

PML-Q’s Minister of State for Labour and Manpower Sheikh Waqas Akram said the man found responsible for the Karachi killing should be punished with “similar shooting on a Karachi square”, as did JUI’s Maulana Atatur Rehman in speech later.

PPP’s Samsam Ali Shah Bokhari called the killing “a matter of shame for whole of Pakistan” but said it should not be used to create a “divide” and expressed the hope that speedy justice would be done.

PPP’s Farahnaz Ispahani said a human rights sub-committee of the house had decided to go to Balochistan to investigate the May 17 shooting because of its lack of faith in the probe being done there.

A PPP member from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Syed Akhonzada Chittan, said Fata was witnessing similar deaths of innocent people in US drone attacks but they were not receiving similar attention.

In the Senate, after MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi spoke about the incident, in which he said while one Rangers jawan shot dead an unarmed man, two colleagues stood by casually, PPP stalwart Raza Rabbani demanded an explanation from the interior minister as he also condemned what he called a ‘free hand’ given to FC in Balochistan and “killing of Balochs in the name of security”.

Another senior PPP senator, Lashkari Raisani, JUI-F’s Azam Swati, Maulana Gul Naseeb and Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, PML-Q’s Rehana Yahya and PML-N’s Raja Zafarul Haq all condemned the Karachi incident.

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari called Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the presidency with a preliminary report on the Karachi incident.

“The president called the interior minister and it is expected that he will meet Mr Zardari late on Thursday night,” said President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

The president expressed shock and grief over the incident and asked for an immediate report in the matter.

The spokesman quoted the president as saying: “The matter will be investigated and the law will take its course.”

Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif demanded of the government to hold a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Sources in the interior ministry said that the incident took place because the government had given ‘shoot-at-sight’ powers to the Rangers.

It has been learnt that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had approved a summary for a three-month extension in Rangers’ powers to curb target killings and other crimes in Karachi.