KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Monday condemned the deadly Friday attack on an Imambargah in Shikarpur which claimed lives of more than 55 people and stressed the need for a comprehensive strategy to confront the menace head-on.

The lawmakers offered their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families, prayed for the early recovery of the injured and asked the government to pay compensation to the victims at the earliest.

They were speaking on a resolution tabled jointly by Senior Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s Nusrat Sahar Abbasi.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who called the house to order at 10:20am, adjourned all business on the order of the day at 2:35pm to meet again on Tuesday at 10am after the resolution was put to a vote after speeches by over 20 MPAs. It was passed unanimously.

Earlier, MQM lawmakers deman­ded expanding the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi to entire Sindh as the Shikarpur tragedy proved terrorists could strike in rural areas as well.

Leader of Opposition Shaharyar Mahar said the incident had proved there was lack of efficiency to meet an emergency in public hospitals.

He suggested the chief minister take initiative to formulate a comprehensive strategy to confront the menace head on.

Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dhar said the government moved into action soon after the tragedy and did whatever it could to provide medical assistance to the injured.

Senior Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that it was need of the hour to join hands to eliminate terrorism. The law and order situation had worsened across the country but only Sindh was being criticised for it, he said.

Deputy Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza said that only condemnation of terrorists was not enough, the government should also take to task those who were providing them protection.

The National Action Plan appeared to be only a moot point because no visible action had been taken against extremism so far, she said.

MQM’s Syed Sardar Ahmad suggested the Sindh government should have its own intelligence wing so that it should not always rely only on the federal government in the event of such tragedies.

Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh of PML-F requested the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take suo motu notice of the tragedy and order its judicial inquiry.

He said the injured did not receive timely medical help at government hospitals which increased number of deaths. Almost all government hospitals were in a pathetic condition, he said.

He appealed to the army chief and corps commander to get the tragedy investigated in order to know who was providing protection to the terrorists.

Syed Amir Haider Shah Shirazi of PML-N regretted that many injured could not be saved for want of ambulances, medicines and doctors.

Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of PML-F said that pamphlets with threats were distributed by an organisation before the Shikarpur tragedy. If the government had paid heed to it the tragedy could have been avoided, she said.

PML-F parliamentary party leader Nand Kumar said the compensation amount be increased to Rs5 million for the heirs of the dead and Rs500,000 for the injured.

Minister for Works and Services Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said that such tragedies should not be used for point-scoring but a comprehensive strategy should be formulated to avert their recurrence in future. It was a failure of intelligence institutions, he said.

Aamir Moin Pirzada and Abdul Haseeb of MQM said that a saint of Sindh Abdul Rahim Grohri had warned over a century ago that Sindh faced a threat from Kabul and Qandahar. MQM chief Altaf Hussain had also been raising the issue but no one paid any attention, they said.

MQM’s Khwaja Izharul Hassan said: “We all agree that terrorism should be eliminated. MQM is prepared to support all the measures taken by the Sindh government to eliminate the menace.”

Syed Faisal Sabzwari of MQM asked if military courts could stop those who were prepared to blow themselves up in suicide attacks.

“We are reaping now what the federal government has sowed over the past 30 to 35 years,” he remarked.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2015

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