LAHORE, Aug 22: Senior PPP leader and noted lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan has supported the call for army operation in Karachi to restore peace in the city.

Talking to reporters at an Iftar party he had hosted for his constituents on Monday, he said there was no harm in calling the army to restore peace in Karachi.

“Nobody should be afraid of the army operation because it will be carried out under the supervision of Sindh’s civil administration,” he said.

He said peace can not be restored in Karachi till the city was deweaponised through an operation.

“We must consider army option seriously because Karachi is the country’s economic hub and if it is disturbed the whole country will be disturbed.”

Citing examples of Britain and India where the army was called out whenever civil rulers felt the need for it, he said the Pakistan Army was a national institution serving under the minister of defence and not an alien force.

Mr Ahsan, who served as interior minister in the Benazir Bhutto-led cabinet in 1988, said a mixture of politics and extortion had complicated the Karachi issue and economic woes of people resulting from the deteriorating law and order had added to the problem.

He said Zulfiqar Mirza’s statements should be given attention because he had served as the home minister of Sindh.He, however, did not agree with Mr Mirza reported statement that Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s frequent visits to Karachi were an interference in provincial matters. He said that President Asif Zardari’s advisers had misguided him about the withdrawal of commissioner system in Karachi.

About Nawaz Sharif’s demand for mid-term polls, he said the former prime minister lacked support even from his allies in this regard.

He said the time for mid-term elections was over.

In reply to a question about a technocrats’ government, he rejected the idea and said next elections would be held under a caretaker set-up to be put in place with the consultation of opposition.