senior leader of the party shared that they were refraining from political activities for their own protection. But, they said, it would not be possible to remain under the radar indefinitely.
Parties decry ‘security gaps’
The leaders of smaller opposition and religious parties in Sindh while condemning the attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Rashid Godil flayed the government for ineffective security for the parliamentarians while demanding the arrest of killers.
Leaders of the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and Sunni Tehreek condemned the attack and termed it a failure on part of the Sindh government that a senior leader was targeted while a targeted operation was under way in the city.
Similarly, Jamaat-e-Islami also condemned the attack and demanded arrest of the killers.
Meanwhile, former Sindh chief minister and provincial president of the federally-ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Syed Ghous Ali Shah, remarked that if elected representatives were not safe then he feared that the law and order situation would worsen.
He demanded that the Sindh government make serious efforts to arrest the attackers of Godil. He said the Karachi Operation had continued for more than one-and-a-half year but terrorists were still able to target a parliamentarian.
However, an MPA of the PML-N in Sindh, Irfanullah Marwat, the incident was an embarrassment for Mualana Fazlur Rehman who visited the Nine Zero for the first time on Tuesday. He said the Maulana was not familiar with the dynamics of politics in Karachi and the reality of the case has to be probed very deeply. An MPA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, commented that the attack seemed to have been part of a conspiracy to sabotage the negotiations between MQM and federal government’s arbitrator Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Though she expressed her full confidence in law-enforcement agencies, she said the captain of the targeted operation had failed completely and should return home.
The Sindh president of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Haleem Adil Sheikh, also condemned the attack on Godil while demanding that security in the city should be enhanced further.
He said attack on an MNA was not something to be taken lightly and asked why Godil was not provided will full security protocol.