PPP, MQM responsible for deaths in Karachi: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq Monday held the PPP and MQM jointly responsible for the problems faced by Karachi and Sindh province, especially the deaths of thousands of people due to power outages spurred dehydration and heatstroke.
He was addressing a press conference at Mansoora after a three-day visit to Karachi in the wake of large scale deaths there due to intense heat and outages. The JI chief said the nation wanted thorough probe into the allegations levelled against MQM and added that the matter should not be wound up as had been done in the past. He said the allegations against MQM were not new and Editor of a weekly Syed Salahuddin had gathered the entire evidence against MQM and he was gunned down for that.
He urged the prime minister to hold a cabinet meeting in Karachi on the issue and added that all decisions should be taken in consultation with all political parties, above party politics. He especially stressed that all political appointments made in different departments and agencies in Karachi must be scrapped and fresh recruitment be made strictly on merit.
He called for preparing a 50 years plan for Karachi and Rs300 billion special package for the city. He said Karachi, once the city of lights, had been turned into a den of target killers, extortionists and land grabbers had taken refuge in political parties. He said recent deaths in Karachi were primarily due to energy crisis which also caused water shortage. He said that for the last 10 years, Sindh health minister had been from the MQM but the health infrastructure in the province was totally ruined and could not even attend to 3,000 heatstroke patients. He said that in the interior Sindh, law and order was deplorable and the people took refuge indoors at sunset while the lawbreakers were roaming all around. The focus of police was on the security of the VIPs. He said it was a high time to attend to the law and order in Sindh failing which the people could rise in revolt.