JI to stage sit-in against controversial LG law today

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman on Thursday warned the Sindh government against disrupting a peaceful protest sit-in scheduled to be held outside the Sindh Assembly on Friday (today) against the controversial law aimed at squeezing powers of city governments.

Addressing a press conference at a camp in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, he said if the protest was disrupted, the Pakistan Peoples Party would have to face its consequences. He also said the JI believed in the peaceful struggle but it also had a legacy of resistance movements.

Rehman said the JI leadership would announce its future course of action during the sit-in. He appealed to the Karachiites to join the protest, saying that the new law was not a political matter but an issue that would affect each and every individual in the city. “The Sindh government will have to step back over the issue as the black law has already been rejected by the people.”

“The majority in the Sindh Assembly was in fact a powerful minority that represents the feudal mindset in the province,” the JI chief said. He said the opposition parties in Sindh were playing a questionable role.

“The opposition parties in the province, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), enjoyed the treasury benches in the Centre and the same tactics are being used by these parties in the Centre and other provinces.” The streets recently constructed by MNA funds in Karachi could not sustain even a single rain spree. “The PTI won 14 seats from the city, but the budget for the city was cut further,” Rehman added.