KARACHI: Lawmakers belonging to the opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly on Friday demanded that Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah accept the responsibility of the Safoora carnage and resign from his office.

However, members of the treasury benches took strong exception to the opposition’s demand and observed that the entire country was in the grip of terrorism and in the presence of a national action plan and military courts resignation should not be demanded from the CM alone.

Also read: 43 killed in attack on bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi

The opposition lawmakers, including the parliamentary party heads, made speeches on a resolution jointly tabled by the members from both side of the aisles to condemn the Wednesday carnage of members of Shia Ismaili community.

Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said that the attack on the Ismaili community was an attack on the ideology and vision of Quaid-i-Aam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

He criticised the performance of the Sindh government in maintaining law and order and said if the chief minister could not prove his ability, he should quit.

Pointing out the absence of the CM from the house, he said that the CM was the captain of the targeted operation and the sensitivity of the tragedy demanded that he should have listened to each and every word uttered in the assembly and had responded to it.

He said that he regarded the chief minister as a senior and experienced politician, but it was his right to ask him why he did not come to the house. “If he is chief minister of the province, he should prove his performance or resign.”

Former Sindh CM Liaquat Jatoi, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional lawmakers Nusrat Sehar Abbasi and Shahryar Khan Mahar and others opposition lawmakers also condemned the massacre of innocent citizens and called upon the CM to quit.

Responding to the criticism, Senior Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro of the Pakistan Peoples Party termed the May 13 incident a calculated move of terrorists to give a message to the world to achieve their objectives.

He wondered why those demanding the CM’s resignation today did not call for the resignation of the then CM when terrorism incidents like the Oct 18, 2007 Karsaz bombing, May 12 mayhem, Nishtar Park carnage and attack on the Karachi corps commander took place.

He said despite the fact that an operation against terrorism was going on under the national action plan and military courts were present, resignation should not be demanded from the chief minister alone.

Mr Khuhro said that the real issue was that certain people did not like to see political governments.

He advised them that instead of calling for the CM’s resignation they all should join hands to formulate a policy to protect the life and property of the people.

Information Minister Sharjeel Memon asked the opposition whether anyone demanded resignation of the Punjab CM after the Model Town tragedy and the Wagah border incident. No one demanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan CMs’ resignation after the Army Public School carnage and so many terrorist incidents, he added.

“We have respect for religious parties but there is no law to monitor madressahs and there are seminaries where elements teach extremism,” said minister Memon.

Resolution to condemn bus carnage adopted

Parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikander Mandhro and leaders of all parliamentary groups in the assembly and other lawmakers read out the resolution.

According to the resolution: “This assembly expresses its extreme sorrow and gried over the barbaric action of firing on passenger bus on May 13 at Safoora Chowk in which 44 innocent people of Ismaili community were martyred and over a dozen seriously injured.

“Every member of this house condemns in the strongest words this beastly savage action of mass murder and shares the deepest condolences with the bereaved families, Prince Karim Aga Khan and every member of the community in this hour of heartbreaking gloom and prays to God Almighty to grant them patience and courage to bear this irreparable loss.”

Syed Sardar Ahmed, Rauf Siddiqui, Abdul Haseeb Khan, Muhammad Hussain, Raana Ansar, Dr Arshad Vohra, Irum Azeem Forooque and Zubair Ahmed of the MQM, Khuram Sherzaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, Syed Amir Hyder, Shaharyar Khan Mahar and Nand Kumar of the PML-F, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Rubina Kaimkhani and Nawab Taimour Talpur of the PPP and Sorath Thebo of the PML-N and other lawmakers also spoke on the resolution.

The session was called to order by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani at 11.05am. Despite Friday, it was adjourned at 3.30pm to meet on Monday.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2015

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