and T2F’s Sabeen Mahmud, were actually aimed at ousting the chief minister.
“For a long time we have seen the law and order situation in Sindh worsening and the attack in Safoora isn’t the only one that requires a change of leadership,” he observed.
“But a change of individuals won’t make any difference as we have to evolve a concrete policy and mechanism to bring the law and order situation under control.”
He said the government and the civil society should unite to combat the menace of terrorism similar to how it was done in Sri Lanka.
“Unfortunately, there is common perception that political parties have militant wings but to me, militant wings control political parties and we have to change our attitude to tackle this. The time is not far away that we will be declared a terrorist state if we don’t act now,” he warned.
“We have to make a collective decision as to whether we want to be labelled a fundamentalist or a liberal state. Nurseries of terrorists will have to be eliminated if we want permanent peace in the province and the country.”
Jan also pointed out that despite the Model Town incident in Lahore and the attack on an army school in Peshawar, there were no demands for the resignation of the chief ministers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The MNAs and MPAs in these provinces don’t speak against the terrorists as they came into power with their help,” he added.
Khurram Sher Zaman, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA, endorsed the demand of the joint opposition and said for the last eight years, Qaim Ali Shah, who had kept the portfolio of the home department with himself, had been performing very poorly and the situation was growing worse.
“It is a sorry state of affairs that Sindh has no home minister and as there is no accountability in any of the department,” he added.
“It is the time that a new chief minister who has passion and is energetic be appointed. The new chief minister should have the will and courage to bring a positive change. Only removing SHOs or SPs won’t bear any fruit and accountability should start from the top.”
Haleem Adil Sheikh, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, said Sindh was in a state of war and needed a chief minister who was empowered to make his own decisions.
“The province needs a powerful chief minister, not one who is dictated by his party’s leadership. If the government is sincere in addressing the law and order problems, it should appoint a young, energetic and powerful chief minister,” he observed.
“But sacrificing the chief minister just to save the existing flawed system would be wrong.”