KARACHI, May 25: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad blamed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for the May 12 violence in Karachi, and said that the party’s acts had created the justification for launching an operation against it.

Qazi, who is also the chief of the Jamat-i-Islami, said this while visiting the residence of party worker Yusuf Shamsi in Muzaffarabad, Landhi, where he went to offer condolences for those who were killed in the mayhem and sympathise with the injured.

He said that the entire country was grieved over the bloodshed. He observed that while the blood of the innocent was shed, the personnel of the law enforcement agencies remained absent, while Sharea Faisal was blocked on the orders of the advisor to the Sindh CM on home affairs, who is an MQM member.

Holding the MQM and Gen Pervez Musharraf directly responsible for the tragedy, he said that the MQM was opposing the chief justice at the behest of Gen Musharraf. Qazi claimed that the CJ had in fact obliged the people of Karachi by deciding against the privatisation of Pakistan Steel, which was an asset for Karachi and a source of employment for its citizens.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that the May 12 incidents proved that Pervez Musharraf and the MQM could go to any length for the sake of power.

He recalled that when people were being killed in Karachi, Pervez Musharraf had termed it a show of the people’s power in the city.

PROTEST DAY: The MMA demanded investigation of the May 12 tragedy by a parliamentary commission. This demand was made at a rally held at Lasbela Chowk after Friday prayers. The rally was staged on the appeal of the MMA to observe Friday as a protest day throughout the country against the May 12 tragedy.