Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday at the Karachi Press Club, former city nazim Niamatullah Khan warned that “a dangerous game was afoot of pushing the people of Karachi to the wall by Gen Pervez Musharraf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.”
Mr Khan was accompanied by leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Asadullah Bhutto, Siddique Rathore, Muzaffar Ahmad Hashmi, Khalifa Anwar and others.
Meanwhile, Professor Ghafoor Ahmed, the Jamaat-i-Islami’s naib amir, and 27 other leaders and activists of the MMA were granted bail by a special judicial magistrate on Wednesday.
They had been arrested on Tuesday during an aborted protest in front of Empress Market.
Karachi ‘hijacked’
Niamatullah Khan said the MQM had once again exposed the hollowness of Gen Musharraf’s “people’s power” by “hijacking Karachi on Sept 11.”
Condemning the “authoritarian measures and repression against peaceful participants of the protest rally at Empress Market on Tuesday and the arrests of leaders and activists,” Mr Khan demanded the immediate release of all arrested persons and the dismissal of MQM ministers, the home adviser and the Sindh governor.
He recalled that the APDM and MMA had planned a protest rally at Empress Market in response to the call given by the APDM and MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad to protest “against the kidnapping of Nawaz Sharif and his deportation” and the large-scale arrest of opposition leaders and political workers.
“In Karachi, the city government, in league with the provincial government, at the behest of the MQM had imposed Section 144 on the same day to foil the protest,” claimed Mr Khan.
“As Section 144 was imposed on the same day, people remained unaware of its imposition and the police had encircled Empress Market and the Saddar area. In a calculated move, they not only started to arrest all those who were coming to join the protest rally but also victimised them,” the ex-city nazim added.
He said police had arrested over 75 people including JI leaders Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, Shaikh Rafique Ahmad, Nasrullah Shaji and others.
Mr Khan said that the policies being pursued by Gen Musharraf had become a threat to the survival and solidarity of the country. The Pakistan armed forces, he said, were patriotic and brave but conspiracies were being hatched to bring them into disrepute.He said Gen Musharraf should not be proud of US support and should learn a lesson from the fate of the late Shah of Iran and keep in mind the fate of his predecessors as the people of Pakistan had never tolerated dictators.
He also advised President Musharraf to resign, set up a caretaker government after consultation with the opposition and appoint a neutral and honest chief election commissioner for holding free and fair elections in the country.
Leaders released
Special Judicial Magistrate Lal Mohammed Khoro granted bail to the arrested MMA activists on a surety of Rs10,000 each and ordered their release.
Prof Ghafoor and 18 others were immediately released while nine of the MMA leaders including MNAs Mohammed Laiq Khan and Mohammed Hussain Mehnati and MPAs Nasrullah Shaji, Hameedullah Khan and Younus Barai were re-arrested on charges of using loud-speakers and violating the law in the past. However, they too were granted bail in the evening.
The Preedy police had lodged an FIR (513/07) on behalf of SHO Preedy Irfan Zaman against the 28 leaders including Prof Ghafoor, Mairaj-ul-Huda Siddiqui, Mohammed Hussain Mehnati, Laiq Khan, Nasrullah Shaji, Hameedullah Khan, Basharat Mirza, Sheikh Rafiq Ahmed and Yousuf Muneer, who were earlier detained and taken to Frere, Darakhshan, Gizri, Artillery Maidan and Defence police stations.
Prof Ghafoor Ahmed later told the media that his detention was illegal as he did not come out of his car to join the meeting when the police dragged him out and sent him to the lock-up.