Attack on Godil leaves MQM leaders feeling insecure

Karachi
The near-fatal attack on a member of National Assembly of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Rashid Godil on Tuesday has left other leaders and lawmakers of the party feeling exposed and vulnerable.
The political atmosphere had already been incredibly charged this past week since the MQM decided to tender resignations from all legislative assemblies after their reservations over the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi were not addressed by the federal and Sindh governments.
As soon as the news regarding the attack on Godil began circulating, so did the feeling of deep insecurity in MQM leaders and lawmakers.
Several of them present at Nine Zero expressed to The News that they too, like the injured MNA, roamed in the city without any protection and security protocol and the attack on Godil was a cause of grave concern for them.
Meanwhile, a day after the MQM announced to tender resignations from legislative assemblies, the police contingent deployed around party headquarters Nine Zero were withdrawn, highly-placed sources inside the party disclosed to The News.
Sources in the party also said that the MQM leaders had enjoyed extra security since the last tenure of Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh but now all of it had been withdrawn, including from Nine Zero.
Another senior member of the party also revealed that the official security provided to MQM legislators and leaders was also withdrawn. He said party leaders had approached the Sindh government for redeployment of security at Nine Zero but they were still waiting for a response from the functionaries.
He demanded that security be provided to all high-profile figures of the MQM especially in the face of security threats they appeared to be facing.
Godil and other lawmakers of the MQM had resigned from the parliament and Sindh Assembly last week against what they described was a “military crackdown” against the party and its supporters in Karachi. Hence, a 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.