LAHORE: The Karachi tragedy has been widely condemned by people from all walks of life.

Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the shooting and expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of precious human lives.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal, Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani, PML-Q chief Shujaat Husain, Pervaiz Elahi, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq and PTI’s Ijaz Chahdhry also expressed condolences and sympathies with the bereaved families and prayed for the early recovery of the injured.

Awami Workers Party (AWP) President Abid Hasan Minto and general secretary Farooq Tariq appealed to people to observe May 14 a day of mourning in solidarity with Karachi Ismaili community martyrs.

Mr Minto said that the AWP would support the strike call by the Pakistan Bar Council.

Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Asma Jahangir said the loss of dozens of lives of peaceful Pakistani citizens in a barbarous yet a cowardly attack was highly condemnable and deeply saddening while at the same time, the method to fanatic madness of the perpetrators was beyond comprehension.

She said the government had failed to fulfill its responsibility of providing the citizens with adequate security.

The Centre for Human Rights Education-Pakistan also condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Ismaili community. It reiterated its demand for appropriate measures for the protection of religious minorities and implementing ban on hate speech.

Pakistan Awami Tehreek chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri said militants had no religion.

He said the whole nation was united against these anti-state elements who would not be allowed to succeed in their hideous agendas.

PML-Q: The PML-Q has condemned the killing of members of the Ismaili community in a bus attack in Karachi and demanded the culprits be brought to justice without delay.

PML-Q Punjab General Secretary Chaudhry Zaheeruddin called the incident a barbaric act and said the killers should be brought to justice. He said the situation in Karachi was improving after a military operation, but terrorism was returning. He said there was a need for a comprehensive operation to purge the city of terrorists.

Rights activist Begum Mehnaz Rafi said police were primarily responsible for law and order in a province.

“But unfortunately, here an army of police personnel is on protocol duty. Unless police are allowed and made to do their real duty - safeguard the people’s lives and property - the common man is not safe,” she added.

Mehnaz further said the government had announced Rs500,000 per victim soon after the incident.

“The government should do something practical to address the situation,” she demanded.

PTI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab Ejaz Chaudhry says the nation is grieved over the Karachi tragedy and PTI leaders, workers and supporters offered condolences to the bereaved families and prayed that the souls of those killed may rest in peace.

At a news conference at the Lahore Press Club, he asked Karachi hospitals to offer the best treatment facilities to all injured.

He said the government as well as political parties were standing by the army, adding that law-enforcement agencies would apprehend the culprits. He said the Karachi tragedy had also exposed Sindh government’s performance over protecting the property and lives of people.

Flanked with Barrister Shahid Masood and PTI Kasur district president Nadeem Harron Khan, the PTI Punjab president said the party would accept every decision by the judicial commission on the poll and added that those decision would streamline the course of future elections in the country. Barrister Masood said the Election Tribunal had reported 39,000 fake votes in PP-178.

PTI WOMEN’S WING: PTI Women’s Wing, Punjab, president Saloni Bukhari and Lahore president Zarqa Taimur also condemned the attack on innocent commuters in Karachi.

Ms Bukhari said the law and order situation had systematically grown worse across the country. In Karachi, she said, no one was safe and the latest attack on the Ismaili community showed how the PPP and MQM government, which enjoyed power for the past seven years, had completely failed to protect the citizens.

“It speaks much of the resilience of the people of Karachi, who have seen little peace in decades, and are compelled to live with political jargon and nothing else. They are the citizens, who pay highest taxes but they are defenseless as the politicos enjoy complete police protection,” she added.

business community: The business community and civil society have termed the attack on Ismaili community in Karachi a cowardly act of anti-Pakistan elements.

While the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) urges the government to convene a roundtable of all the political parties and business community representatives to make a consensus policy to cope with law and order related incidents, the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) calls for bringing the perpetrators to justice at the earliest.

LCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz, Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir and Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi in a joint statement on Wednesday appealed to all the political parties in the Parliament to take a unified stand to weed out the menace of terrorism that has jolted the body politic of the country.

Terming the attack an ugly attempt to destabilise the country by creating an impression of unsafe place in the eyes of international community, the statement said it was very strange that despite all-out efforts, terrorists were attacking the place of their choice and killing innocent people.

“Any further delay will cause undue damage to the country. The president, prime minister and all the chief ministers should sit with other politicians and business leaders to evolve a methodology to get rid of this menace,” said the statement.

The NCJP, a human rights body of the Catholic Church, says that killing innocent people on the basis of their faith is unacceptable.

NCJP Chairperson Bishop Joseph Arshad, National Director Rev Fr Emmanuel Yousaf Mani and Executive Director Cecil Shane Chaudhry in a joint statement prayed for the families of the victims that may God give them the strength to bear this irreparable loss, and wished for a speedy recovery of those injured in this gruesome attack.

They demanded that both the federal and provincial governments take serious and effective measures to prevent such atrocities and also pleaded to increase security of all minority groups in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2015

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