KARACHI, April 6: Nazims of eight towns on Wednesday demanded unconditional release of the North Nazimabad Town Nazim, Fasihuddin Siddiqui, and said if the the Nazim was not released immediately, the Town nazims might bring municipal services to a halt. Speaking at a joint news conference at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, they termed the charges levelled against the Town Nazim and his two sons ‘fake’ and ‘bogus’,

“As a matter of fact unjustified arrest of the Nazim amounts to a conspiracy aimed at failing the present local government system,” they said

They said if the Nazim was not released, they would have two options i.e. either to request the court to make all the town nazims of the city a party in the cases in which the Nazim has been booked or will lock-out the offices of town nazims and bring a halt to municipal services.

However, while going for the second option, the town nazims would deliberate over the issue in-depth because in such a situation, only common man would suffer, they added.

The Nazims of Gulberg Town, Farooq Niamatullah; Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town’s Abdul Wahab; Jamshed Town’s Ahmed Qasim Parekh; Lyari Town’s Abdul Khaliq Juma; Korangi Town’s A. Jamil Khan; Malir Town’s Naveed-ul-Islam; North Karachi Town’s Shafiq-ur-Rehman Usmani and Naib Nazim of Shah Faisal Town, Islamuddin Siddiqui, were present.

They also demanded of the president, Pervez Musharraf to take those elements to task who were bent upon failing the new local government system. An inquiry be ordered into the matter so as to know how ‘terrorist’ elements were busy in sabotaging the good measures of the government.

“The nazims of the city’s towns are a symbol of progress in the city and the act of refraining them from discharging their duties amounts to stopping them from executing development works in the metropolis,” they added.

Criticising the arrest of North Nazimabad Town’s Nazim, Fasihuddin, they alleged that the Nazim, his two sons and nephews, were arrested from his house at the behest of a coalition party in the Sindh government because the police party which arrested the Nazim from his house was accompanied with the MQM’s armed workers and thus a mockery of law was made in this way.

Accusing the Sindh government’s coalition partner of disliking the progress being made in the city, the town nazims said that the political group was dreaming of having control over the present (local government) system at any cost.

They further alleged a political group that had made a record of strikes in the city and had caused huge losses to human lives and properties owing to its repressive policies had resorted to unjustified arrests on the occasion of a recent peaceful strike that was observed on the call of a political group.

“Such unjustified arrests are part of a conspiracy that had been hatched to push the city once again towards lawlessness,” they added.

They also demanded that severe punishment to those responsible for his ‘unjustified’ arrest.