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KARACHI, June 16: Chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party and a former prime minister Ms Benazir Bhutto has condemned the killing of a senior prison official along with his several associates in an ambush in broad-daylight in Karachi on Thursday as an unpardonable failure of the regime to protect life and honour of citizens.
In a statement issued by the PPP Media Cell at Bilawal House on Friday, Ms Bhutto expressed shock and grief over the brutal murder of four innocent people.
She said that the law and order situation throughout the country, whether in Balochistan, in tribal areas, or Karachi, had gone from bad to worse but the regime had turned a blind eye. “It is tragic that at a time when attention should have been focussed on protecting the lives of citizens, the regime has engaged itself in finding ways to impose General Musharraf on the people in uniform through the present assemblies,” she said.
She asked the government to spare some time from chasing and hounding political opponents and attend to its basic responsibility of maintaining law and order in the country.
Ms Bhutto also demanded immediate arrest of the assailant, and added that culprits be punishment according to the law and compensation be paid to the bereaved families. She also prayed for the recovery of those injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, talking to newsmen at Karachi airport, leader of the opposition in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani castigated the government over, what he claimed, the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation and power crisis in Karachi.
Mr Rabbani said that Thursday’s broad-daylight killing of the deputy superintendent of jail and others in a busy business enclave in the centre of Karachi amply exposed the government’s claim about improvement in the law and order situation.
On the contrary, he said, the law and order had totally collapsed and the government had failed to perform its constitutional duty of providing security to its citizen. The government, he alleged, had given rise to ‘small warlords’ who had been holding people and economy hostage.
He also slammed the government for continuing with the unscheduled suspension of power supply in Karachi, and pointed out that this was seriously affecting the national economy.
MMA: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has condemned the incident of killing a high official of police department and four others in broad daylight in Karachi on Thursday, adds PPI.
“Who would be safe in a city where law enforcers are being targeted?” MMA legislators questioned, commenting on the murder of Central Jail Deputy Superintendent Amanullah Niazi.
In a joint statement, MMA MNAs Muhammad Hussein Mehenti, Abdul Sattar Afghani and Muhammad Laeeq Khan criticised the provincial government saying that religious scholars, political leaders, police officers were being killed in the city, but “the home minister is sticking to his seat”.
They said it had become a trend that the culprits involved in broad daylight killings were not arrested. They regretted that no culprit behind Nishtar Park tragedy had been nabbed even after lapse of two months.
“Incidents of robberies, cellphone snatching and car-lifting have become order of the day. Police personnel are being victimised,” they observed.
Meanwhile, the Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi Amir Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui strongly condemned threats to demolish leased katchi abadies in name of uplift.
Talking to the affectees of razed slums during his visit to Abbasi Nagar, Godhra Camp, Muhammad Ali Goth, and Sector 11-E of New Karachi, Merajul Huda termed the forced eviction of leased slums’ residents extra-judicial.
