KARACHI: Minutes after his release following hours-long detention at the Kalakot police station, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman Mustafa Kamal warned on Monday that the protest campaign was not going to stop despite “brutality of the Sindh government” and said he would come up with another plan within 48 hours to demand “rights for Karachiites”.

The former city mayor, who was arrested with other leaders of the PSP, including Raza Haroon, Anis Kaimkhani and Dr Sagheer Ahmed, amid teargas shelling at the party’s rally on Sunday evening, was released an hour before dawn after Sindh Transporter Minister Nasir Hussain Shah visited the Kalakot police station and held talks with the police authorities and PSP leaders.

With dozens of party workers, Mr Kamal drove to Pakistan House, the PSP headquarters in PECHS. Talking to journalists, he condemned the police action and announced another protest “very soon”.

Criticises PM for ‘abandoning Karachi’

“Peace is the only weapon and my workers have proved that they cannot be stopped [through] such brutality,” he said, adding: “The Sindh police have come down to a level which is worse than dictatorship. They attacked our unarmed workers, women and children. They should be ashamed of themselves for arresting citizens asking for water. They just got panicked seeing the size of our rally. We are not giving up and would soon be on the road with another protest.”

On Sunday evening, a heavy contingent of police resorted to baton-charge and shelling to disperse PSP activists as they tried to march towards the Chief Minister House after negotiations between the PSP and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party ended without any consensus.

A large number of PSP activists had gathered at Sharea Faisal near the FTC bridge after the provincial government imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the city’s ‘red zone’ ahead of the march towards CM House.

Although Mr Kamal thanked Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for condemning the police action, he criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for “abandoning Karachi”.

“I want to question him [PM Nawaz] whether he considers Karachi a part of Pakistan or not,” he said. “He has been inaugurating development projects everywhere in the country but has abandoned Karachi. But let me tell everyone, we will not allow anyone to snatch rights of Karachi’s citizens. We will keep raising our voice as this is a matter of our survival,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2017