MQM protests as Qaim terms party’s sit-in attack on CM House

Karachi
The Sindh chief minister’s tirade in the Sindh Assembly against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) protest outside the CM House earlier in the month enraged its lawmakers on Tuesday and made them walk out of the House in protest amid loud arguments.
Qaim Ali Shah was talking about the MQM’s 10-hour sit-in with the bodies of its slain workers on January 10. The protest had coincided with a call by the MQM to observe a day of mourning against the killings of its workers.
Shah said MQM workers had not come to protest outside the CM House but to attack it. “Holding a knife to one’s throat is no way to ask for a meeting,” he remarked.
This was followed by an uproar by MQM lawmakers, who gathered near the rostrum of speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, loudly protesting against the chief minister’s remarks. The PPP lawmakers also rushed to meet them half way and respond to their comments. A serious clash was avoided, however, thanks to the timely intervention of senior MPAs. The chief minister then continued his speech while being surrounded by MPAs from his own party.
The MQM leaders left the House in protest while chanting slogans against the government.
The chief minister expressed remorse that opposition lawmakers had not been able to tolerate his remarks and had resorted to protesting in the Sindh Assembly.
Addressing the House with a wireless microphone since the sound system had been disrupted by the rumpus, Shah said he was not in Karachi on January 10 and had come to know that the CM House had been surrounded by MQM activists when he returned to the city around midnight.
He said Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad had been informed about the ongoing sit-in and he too had agreed that this behaviour was not appropriate. He said if anyone had seen the footage aired on television, it was visible that barriers and containers were breached using ladders as the MQM activists thronged the gates of the CM House. “The CM House is no one’s personal property,” remarked the chief minister.
He claimed the MQM had begun protesting only when some of its workers incarcerated in Karachi’s prisons were shifted to jails outside the city. “Three of their [MQM’s] jailed suspects have been shifted to other cities from jails in Karachi after the approval of the federal interior minister,” he said. “How much uproar will they create if the names of 300 criminals arrested red-handed by the Karachi police are revealed? We should not be teased on the issue ... we can say a lot.”
He also did not refrain from pointing out that no criminal case had been registered for alleged instances of extrajudicial killings by law enforcers while similar cases were being heard by superior courts. On May 12, 2007, he said, some 40 PPP workers had been killed in Karachi but the PPP did not raise the issue for the sake of demonstrating political maturity and reconciliation with other parties. “Since the beginning of the target operation in the city, 600 PPP activists have been killed but I can’t go anywhere to raise such a valid issue.”
He lamented that the MQM’s protest on January 10 had been uncalled for especially in the wake of Peshawar massacre. “Even the parents of martyred students hadn’t staged a sit-in outside the Governor or CM House in Peshawar.”

Thebo’s theory
The background for subsequent ruckus in the Sindh Assembly had been set by MQM MPA Abdul Haseeb when on a point of order he referred to the remarks of Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo about the killings of party activists.
He claimed the statement by the official showed that an international conspiracy had once again been launched against the MQM.
Thebo had told an international broadcasting service the recent killings of MQM workers had occurred because of the differences between various factions and groups of the party.

Motion against Qaim
MQM lawmakers later warned of submitting a privilege motion in the assembly against the chief minister if he did not explain his “misleading” remarks about the party’s sit-in outside the CM House.
Talking to the media after walking out from the House, they said Shah’s remarks were misleading and had breached their privileges. If the chief minister believed that he or the CM House had come under an “attack”, then the government should have lodged an FIR, they added.
“To claim that the official residence of the chief minister was attacked and then not register an FIR demonstrates how incompetent the present government is,” remarked MQM MPA Faisal Sabzwari. “The chief minister can neither control his government nor the Sindh Police.”
He said there was no harm in taking coffins of slain workers to the CM House to protest against their murders as the chief minister had an obligation to resolve the problems of people round the clock. “If he can’t do that then he should hang a sign outside the CM House stating that it works only from 9am to 5pm.”