ISLAMABAD: As lawmakers blew hot and cold in the National Assembly on Thursday over Karachi violence, there was little fancy for MQM leader Altaf Hussain’s demand to call out army to restore peace in Pakistan’s commercial hub.
Though a member of the government-allied Awami National Party (ANP), which has been at odds with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi, repeated the party’s own demand for using army to “deweaponise” the violence-plagued city, Mr Hussain’s demand in a speech from London on Wednesday to deploy the army and paramilitary Rangers in the city on “a full-time basis” was rejected outright by opposition partner Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI).
The idea was met with silence from speakers from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, to which the MQM was allied until last month, and the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N on the fourth day of an opposition-sought debate on the latest upsurge of deadly shooting sprees in Karachi and sectarian violence in Quetta.
No member from the third major party in the house and a government ally, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, spoke on the day, which also saw angry exchanges between the PPP and PML-N over each other’s conduct, with some shouting from the PML-N benches, and sentimental outburst from two MQM members, repeating their party’s allegations that the PPP government in Sindh was backing groups their party blames for gunning down its supporters and burning properties in various parts of the
city it dominates politically.
But other speakers, including those from the opposition who accused the government of bad governance, pleaded for a political approach, such as all political parties sitting together to find a solution and forming an all-party parliamentary committee to investigate the situation and report to the house.
JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said he was opposed to army’s deployment in Karachi in the same way as he had been against its use against militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
He described the present situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after the 2009 military operation in the province’s Malakand division as that of “martial law practically” and said: “Don’t take out army against the public. A partial martial law will be as bad as a complete martial law in the whole country.”
The Maulana described MQM’s demand for army deployment in Karachi despite its experience of previous crackdowns there and of ANP – and “some similar talk in the opposition” – as a reflection of the gravity of the situation, but he said: “If all parties sit together with sincerity, I can say with certainty that we can find a solution.”MQM’s Sajid Ahmed blamed members of the rival MQM-Haqiqi and what he called the “Lyari gang” for attacks such as killings and burning of houses and factories without being checked from police or Rangers, while his party colleague Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan complained of “terrorists getting government backing” and said the whole of Pakistan should be made weapon-free rather than only Karachi.
A third MQM member, Wasim Akhtar, speaking on a point of order, demanded compensation for burned down properties in Karachi and stern action against kidnappings of members of the Hindu community in interior of Sindh mainly for what he called grabbing their properties by influential local people.
It was harsh criticism of the PPP policies since the 1970s and Interior Minister Rahman Malik by PML-N member Hanif Abbasi that provoked a counter-attack from PPP Punjab provincial president Imtiaz Safdar Waraich, who was cheered from his own party but was cut short by Speaker Fehmida Mirza after some PML-N shouting, apparently against his recalling of party chief Nawaz Sharif accepting a 10-year exile for a pardon by then president Pervez Musharraf in Dec 2000 and Mr Abbasi voting as a then-MMA member for the controversial Musharraf-era 17th Amendment of the Constitution.
ANP member Bushra Gohar said “all stakeholders” in Karachi should come to table to find out a solution instead of resorting to point-scoring and called for an “across-the-board deweaponisation” of the city and implementation of the newly revived “commissionerate system” there “in letter and spirit”.
PML-N’s newly inducted deputy information secretary Khurram Dastgir said his party was “unconditionally ready for anything it can do” to remedy the situation that he blamed on a “death of governance”, and called on all parties to realise their responsibility to the country instead of hurling accusations against one another.
But the new PML-N deputy secretary-general, Ahsan Iqbal, seemed little impressed by his colleague’s counsel when, after repeating his Wednesday’s demand for calling heads of all security agencies for a briefing to parliamentarians on Karachi, he announced a protest walkout of his party over power cuts and delayed trains at the end of debate, only to find Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi adjourning the house until 10.30am on Friday before most party members could get up from their seats.
