KARACHI: The Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen Karachi chapter and several other parties on Monday evening staged a sit-in at Numaish traffic intersection in support of a charter of demands presented by Pakistan Awami Tehrik leader Allama Tahirul Qadri in Islamabad.

The protest, which was being staged on a call of MWM chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafari, would continue until the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said MWM leader Ali Hussain Naqvi while addressing an emergency press conference at the Karachi Press Club earlier in the afternoon.

Accompanied by Qazi Zahid Hussain of the PAT, Jafarul Hasan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Sahibzada Azhar Raza of the Sunni Ittehad Council and Matloob Awan of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, Mr Naqvi asked the PML-N government to quit and face trial in court because they were involved in the Model Town massacre. “All the demands of the Inqilabi March are legitimate and nothing illegal is desired by the leadership of Inqilabi March,” he added.

If Mr Sharif did not resign, protest demonstrations would be staged on highways and railway stations across the country as per directive of the MWM chief, he said.

In the first phase, he said, sit-ins would be staged across Sindh and Punjab by blocking the highway. In the second phase, the protest would be expanded to Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2014