Watch yourself or you might be next, MQM warns PPP in PA

Karachi
Though the budget session was still under way in the Sindh Assembly, opposition lawmakers of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) on Wednesday lashed out at the Rangers-led targeted operation in the city for what they described their high-handedness against its activists.
A woman legislator even went as far as to say that a “Bangladesh-like” situation might result in Karachi if the operation continued in its present “unjust” manner.
The visibly-perturbed MQM legislators warned members of the House that leaders of Sindh should know that if a single party was persistently singled out and victimised on the pretext of a targeted operation in the city then they might be the next ones to become the bulls’ eye of a discriminatory and malicious campaign of the law-enforcement agencies.
The discussion on recently-presented budget for 2015-2016 continued in the Sindh Assembly for the second day on Tuesday.
Though the show of resentment in the House against the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi was surprising for many, it came at a time when the ruling Pakistan People’s Party too began raising serious concerns over the accelerated drive of Rangers against criminal activities in the city, especially land grabbing, and perceived it to be an encroachment upon the domain and prerogative of elected and civil administration of the province.
The first salvo against the Rangers-led targeted operation was fired by MQM legislator Heer Ismail Soho, who towards the end of her speech on Sindh government’s budget, expressed her rage against what she described was the undue detention of her husband for 80 days following the Rangers’ raid at party headquarters Nine Zero in Azizabad on March 11.
Soho said her husband had been kept in undue confinement for 80 days following the raid by the paramilitary personnel after he was set free without the framing of any charges against him. The enraged legislator said she had had no clue as to how to deal with the situation and whom to approach to be able to get justice during the 80 days her husband had been in detention without any valid cause. She said her spouse was treated like a terrorist and a criminal owing in the way he had been whisked away and taken into custody by the Rangers personnel.
She said the situation in the city had become alarming to the extent that law-enforcers involved in the operation had become empowered to declare anyone to be a criminal at any time or decide his innocence.
Soho demanded of the authorities to take immediate notice of the situation and prevent any more situations where innocent political activists were treated inhumanely and brandished as terrorists, humiliating them and their families.
She said the opposition would continue to raise such valid causes of public concern in legislative bodies.
The second MQM lawmaker to castigate the Rangers’-led operation was Waseemuddin Qureshi who after finishing his speech on the upcoming annual budget, questioned the authority of Sindh chief minister who had been declared the captain of targeted operation launched in September.
He said it had been a well-settled matter that an impartial monitoring committee had to be formed by the Sindh government to supervise and ensure neutrality of ongoing targeted operation in Karachi. However, he said, the chief minister should inform the House who were the hidden forces preventing him from forming such a committee.
He said it was high time that those responsible for the disappearance of more than 90 MQM activists and killing of 300 others for no crime of theirs should be brought to justice. Qureshi said the hostility arising from situation had been drawn to the level that there was no justice or respite for innocent people.
He said the authorities should be cognisant of the undesirable situation being created in Karachi and take care because the fire threatening one opposition political party now stood to spread to and engulf their own houses.
The third MQM legislator in line was Jamal Ahmed who said on one side the people of Karachi did not get respite from the worsened situation pertaining to power and water supply, even leading to disturbance of law and order, on the other hand activists and supporters of their representative parties were being unduly detained and not allowed to perform mandatory public service.
He said the arbitrary manner in which MQM supporters and activists were being detained, put in jail and lock ups and then being produced in court like they were heinous criminals — with handcuffs and blindfolds — showed that they were being victimised for their association of the political party of the masses, low and middle-income groups.
He compared the situation of MQM activists and supporters to the manner in which super model Ayyan Ali was presented in the trial court in Rawalpindi, highlighting the stark contrast. He said the way the model was made up for the occasion every single time gave a clear impression that “Adiala Jail also had the facilities of a beauty salon and a boutique”.
Ahmed said workers and supporters of MQM were being rounded up in raids being conducted by the law-enforcement agencies almost on a daily basis and they were put behind bars for no valid reason at all. He said they were being meted out such harsh treatment for being the representatives of middle and lower-income population of Karachi.

Budget criticised
Opposition lawmakers from MQM, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in their speeches, criticised the fresh budget presented by the Sindh government. They said the document does not take into stock any of the pressing socio-economic needs of rural and urban population groups of the province.
Khurrum Sher Zaman of the PTI said the legislators of his party from to Karachi had been proposing development schemes to the government for urgent uplift of their respective constituencies in various parts of the city, but never had the proposed schemes were included in the successive budgets since 2013.
Mehtab Akbar Rashdi of the PML-F talked about the highly pathetic situation of education and health sectors, besides the civic infrastructure. She said the authorities concerned in Sindh government were not paying any heed to the constant suffering of people, especially the school-going children due to the undesirable state of affairs of governance.
A total of 10 MPAs took part in the general budget discussion with five of them being from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), three from the MQM and one legislator each from the PML-F and PTI.
Resolution not allowed
In the midst of all this, MQM lawmaker Muhammad Hussain Khan drew the attention of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani toward a resolution moved by him and his fellow MPAs against the recent “derogatory” statement of federal defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif against the “Muhajir community”. The lawmaker urged the speaker to urgently take up the resolution out of turn in the House.
However, the request was turned down by the speaker with the reason that since the session was discussing the budget, he could not allow any other business in the House except debate and discussion on the topic.
Talking to newsmen after the session, MQM legislators said they would continue their protest movement in the House and keep on urging the speaker to take up their resolution against the defence minister without wasting any more time so the humiliation caused to Muhajirs be mitigated to an extent.