News
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Passions run high over Karachi in National Assembly* PPP lawmakers, ANP turn against government for restoring LG system
* ANP member says logic of creating new provinces cannot be applied to Sindh
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had a hard day in the Lower House of parliament on Tuesday when one of its ally, Awami National Party (ANP), and lawmakers from its own ranks turned against it over the restoration of the local government system and the law and order situation Karachi.
At the very outset, the ANP members staged a walkout from the session as a mark of protest over the restoration of local government system 2001 in Sindh. Later they joined the session, but lashed out at the government for reviving the system.
The PPP’s lawmakers from Sindh and Balochistan, Zafar Ali Shah and Nasir Hussain Shah, also expressed their anguish over, what they called, injustice with Sindh and failure of the government to stop target killings in Quetta.
Ayaz Amir of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also appeared to be drifting away from his party policy over the creation of new provinces when he categorically stated that the logic of creating new provinces could not be applied to Sindh, which has already suffered from injustices, an apparent shift from the PML-N policy which advocated for creation of new provinces on administrative grounds.
“History has not done justice with Sindh, which received the outsiders with open hearts but in return it received only excesses,” Amir said, adding that Sindh could not be compared with other provinces when it came to creation of new federating units.
PPP’s Nabil Gabol – presently a political pariah in PPP– also opened his heart by covertly going against the party when he talked about the failure of the government to control the Karachi situation. “I know and everyone knows that who is involved in bloodshed in Karachi,” Gabol said and asserted that Karachi could be cleaned of criminals within three days if the will is there.
Gabol felt that instead of pointing fingers against others, it should be admitted that “we all are involved in killing spree in Karachi”. He said that the city was being divided on linguistic basis.
ANP’s Pervez Khan invited all stakeholders to sit together for restoration of peace in Karachi. However, he came down hard on Interior Minister Rahman Malik, labelling him as the most inefficient person and suggested him to resign from the ministry over bad law and order in Karachi.
Amir said that a cynical approach was working behind the scene at the altar of city, in a veiled reference to the MQM, which was shedding tears some days ago over the Karachi situtation.
Amir believed that all the stakeholders of Karachi just staged the show, with a motive to keep the status quo intact at the cost of hundreds of precious lives.
He also fell short of condemning what he believed unnecessary comments by the corps commander meeting over Karachi and said that they should not be given a chance to speak on national issues.
About the allegations that militants trained in Pakistan were responsible for creating unrest in Kashgar, Amir said that it should be a wake up call for the country.
PPP’s Fauzia Wahab said that demography of Karachi was fast changing and all should accept new realities in the city.
A PPP’s backbencher from Sindh Gul Muhammad Jakhrani, in a hard-hitting way, criticised Shahbaz Sharif and Javed Hashmi for speaking about division of Sindh, which he vowed, would not be allowed at any cost.
In an explanatory note, Hashmi said that he never talked about division of any province and it was better that that decision to this effect should be left with the people of the area concerned.
At the end of the session, the PML-N also staged a walkout against increase in gas prices and prolonged load shedding, however, it returned to the House when treasury convinced them.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk