KARACHI: “I don’t say it is a terrorist organisation. The MQM has a mandate of the people in Karachi and elsewhere and as such we take it as a political party,” said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah while answering a question at a press conference at CM House on Thursday.

“If the federal government terms it a terrorist organisation, it is within its jurisdiction.”

Replying to another question, the chief minister said he did not know if the Sindh governor was being changed, adding that neither was it in his knowledge nor was the matter discussed at his meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday.

Know more: Sharif approves expansion of operation in Sindh

He also said that the Wednesday meeting on law and order was informal and Governor Ishratul Ibad left the PAF Faisal Base after a function of the Karachi Stock Exchange with the PM’s permission.

When asked about the removal of barriers from Bilawal House and the residence of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, the CM said that being former presidents both required security. Besides, ex-president Asif Zardari had formally taken permission from the federal and provincial governments to install barriers because of threats, particularly to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Later on when a firing incident on Bilawal House occurred, the Sindh government and its police special branch had erected the barriers which were only on one track of the road.

Rs10bn federal assistance awaited

Urging the federal government to give the Rs10 billion to the provincial government promised by the prime minister for law and order in Sindh, CM Shah said the results of the ongoing operation in Karachi had been quite encouraging as there was not only visible improvement in the situation, but the people also had realised that crime rate had dropped significantly.

He said kidnapping for ransom cases had dropped to almost nil during a year while targeted killings had decreased by 60 per cent.

The police force, whose responsibility was to detect crime cases and curb crime, had abandoned its responsibility but it had been reactivated now. Similarly, he said, the investigation branch, whose performance was zero, had started producing results and its proof was the arrests or killings in encounters with the law enforcement agencies of the masterminds of the suicide bomb blast in Shikarpur, Baldia garments factory fire, killing of Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl in Larkana and journalist Wali Khan Babar.

Although they were blind cases and were not expected to be solved so soon, the police force, which in the past used to abandon such cases for want of witnesses and interest by the prosecution, now was alive to its responsibilities.

“This objective has been attained by our own police force and the Rangers after the later were armed with police powers and the police equipped with modern weapons besides grant of incentives, including increase in the compensation money to Rs2 million from Rs500,000 for those killed in the line of duty,” he said. He added that the situation prevailing in Karachi before the operation was launched was very bad. People were scared of the increasing crime rate, targeted killings, kidnapping for ransom, extortion and terrorism.

He also referred to the support extended by the federal government to the operation, including approval of the Pakistan Protection Ordinance by parliament, trial of heinous cases by military courts and formation of apex committees to oversee implementation of the 14-point plan to eliminate terrorism.

Mr Shah regretted that despite commitment by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a Rs10 billion financial assistance had not been received from the federal government. He said the provincial government had provided the police Rs60 billion from its development funds to equip them with latest weapons, bulletproof jackets, APCs and other modern gadgets.

Recalling the action taken by the Sindh government from January 2015 to March 18, 2015 under its 14-point plan to eliminate terrorism, he said in the province 363 cases were registered and 149 persons arrested for misuse of the Loudspeaker Act. For hatred speeches, he said, 21 cases were registered and an equal number of people were arrested; against illegal entry 408 cases were registered against Afghan refugees and 1,048 people were arrested while, under the Arms Act, 2,092 cases were registered and 1,527 persons arrested.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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