KARACHI, Sept 11: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said on Wednesday that the arrest of its former provincial lawmaker Nadeem Hashmi in a ‘fake’ case showed that someone was trying to sabotage the federal government’s efforts to restore peace to Karachi.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters, MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to order a probe into the arrest of the former Muttahida MPA to know who was plotting against their efforts to restore peace to the city.He said that when authorities had been approached following the unjust arrest of Mr Hashmi, the party was informed about a government directive to the police to arrest the MQM unit in-charge if a crime occurred in his locality.

Mr Rizvi said that the police also raided offices of MPAs Rehan Zafar and Jamal Ahmed and took away LCD televisions, fax machines and other valuables. “The illegal and unjust raids on offices of MQM lawmakers give an impression that the targeted operation is not transparent and fair and is being given a political colour.”

He said that police were raiding and carrying our arrests only in MQM-dominated areas. He said that the police were not carrying out raids on Al-Asif Square in Sohrab Goth or in Lyari because criminals present there retaliated.

Mr Rizvi said that it was ironic that the police arrested a former MPA and then made up a story that he had come on a motorcycle, fired at a police mobile van, killed two policemen, snatched their rifles and then rode away.He said that police and Rangers were carrying out raids on the residences of MQM office-bearers who were silent “just for the sake of peace of this city”.

He said that efforts of the federal interior minister and the prime minister for peace in Karachi were being sabotaged and conspiracies were being hatched to implicate the Muttahida leadership in false cases.

He said the party had political, legal and democratic right to lodge a protest. “We will continue to support the operation in Karachi if it is conducted against the Peoples Amn Committee, gang warfare, land and drug mafias...but we will not allow it to defame those who have the people’s mandate.”