PTI’s Vawda dares MQM to stage Karachi sit-in

KARACHI: Hours after Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain announced a protest sit-in outside the CM House against ‘extra judicial killings and arrest of MQM workers’, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda late on Tuesday dared the former to do the same.

In a statement issued here, Vawda lauded the efforts put in by the Rangers paramilitary force in curtailing terrorism and oragnised crimes in the Sindh capital. He said the provincial government and other concerned departments should have done the work Rangers were doing for the port city.

The flamboyant PTI leader warned the Sindh government against depriving the paramilitary force of its due powers, which were due to expire today.

Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah has already made it clear that extending ‘police-like’ powers for Rangers was a provincial matter after the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment.

Faisal Vawda went on to say that Rangers have broken the backbone of ‘MQM’s terror activities’. “I challenge MQM to hold the sit-in,” he said.

Responding to the dare, MQM’s Ali Raza Abidi said Vawda should first clarify whether he was a spokesperson for Rangers or the PTI’s Amir.

He said the protest sit-in will take place as decided by the party leadership and Faisal Vawda must promise to shun issuing such ‘nonsensical statements’ when that happens.