KARACHI: A central leader of Pasban and his son were taken into custody by the Rangers in a pre-dawn raid in Federal B Area, family and party said on Monday.

Pasban-i-Pakistan is a socio-political group that once had ties with the Jamaat-i-Islami. It has challenged the formation of military courts in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and has also demanded that Karachi be made a separate province.

According to the party and the family, Rangers personnel raided the house of Usman Moazzam Siddiqui, the general secretary of Pasban, in Federal B Area’s Samanabad locality late on Sunday night and took him and his younger son, Muhammad Siddiqui, into custody.

However, a spokesman for the paramilitary force neither confirmed nor denied the arrests.

‘We believe we are being punished for raising our voice for the people of Karachi’

Mr Siddiqui was the candidate of Pasban in the April 23 by-election on a National Assembly seat (NA-246) in Karachi’s Azizabad area.

His elder son, Saad Siddiqui, has also been ‘missing’ since June.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Pasban president Altaf Shakoor said that a heavy contingent of Rangers “entered the house of the Pasban leader without lady searchers on the second day of Eid, harassed the women of his family and took him and his son into custody”.

Accompanied by the wife of Mr Siddiqui, the Pasban president said that his elder son, Saad, had also been whisked away on June 11 and he was still missing.

He added that an FIR (84/2015) had been lodged at the Samanabad police station and a petition was filed in the Sindh High Court regarding his disappearance.

He said that Mr Siddiqui was a respected citizen. “If the Rangers or any other law enforcement agency wants any information, Pasban would fully cooperate as it is a patriotic political party of Pakistan.”

He demanded that Mr Siddiqui and his both sons be released immediately and the basic rights of all citizens of Pakistan be respected.

He said that Pasban was struggling for the rights of the masses and it always raised its voice for the rule of law and the Constitution.

“This party has also floated the idea of making Karachi a separate administrative unit to solve the lingering problems of the city,” said Mr Shakoor.

“We believe we are being punished for raising our voice for the people of Karachi,” he said, adding: “We see them [the arrests] as a bid to deprive the city of Karachi of a committed and honest leadership.”

Mr Shakoor said that Pasban was a registered political party and not a “hidden or secret outfit”. It was working within the ambit of law and the Constitution to end “feudalism, VVIP culture, corruption, injustice and politics based on petty vested interests” and wanted distribution of national resources equally and justifiably, he added.

He said: “This is why we have demanded the creation of new provinces in the country and raised the demand for a Karachi province.

“To ensure upholding of law and the Constitution, Pasban has challenged the formation of military courts in the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” the leader added.

Meanwhile, SSP-Central Muqaddas Haider told Dawn that he was not aware of any such raid. “So far no one has approached the police station concerned [to lodge a missing report].”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2015

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