News
Thursday, August 25, 2011
PML-N opposes deployment of army in Karachi* Nisar says root cause of deteriorating law and order lays in coalition partners’ support for their ‘terrorist wings’ instead of concentrating on discharging their responsibilities
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The growing calls for an army operation in violence-stricken Karachi received a big jolt on Wednesday, when the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), opposed the deployment of army troops to stop the killing spree in the provincial metropolis.
“Those demanding to hand over Karachi to the army are not the well-wishers of the force and the move will not only be disastrous for the army, but for the country as well,” Opposition Leader in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.
He was of the view that an operation would be like a trap for the army, which would land it in a closed street with no exit. Nisar said that the deployment of army in the city could put a temporary end to the violence, but it would have dire consequences for the force.
He called for taking the matter of an army operation, if needed, in Karachi to parliament for a thorough debate before any decision was taken in this regard, because the final decision should rest with parliament.
Nisar said that the reason for the violence in Karachi was the failure of police, the Rangers and the also the government, which was reluctant to give a free hand to the civil law enforcement agencies to deal with full strength against criminal elements in the city.
Nisar also demanded to free police and the Rangers from the command of Interior Minister Rahman Malik, so that the institutions could take action against criminals without any fear.
He proposed for the constitution of a parliamentary committee consisting of members of all the political parties to monitor all the operations against the criminal elements in Karachi. He said that the PML-N was also contemplating to submit a requisition for a session of the assembly on the Karachi issue in the coming days.
Though throwing his weight behind the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for opposing the army operation in Karachi, Nisar, however, blamed the government and its allies for staging a bloody drama in the city. He said that the growing violence in Karachi is a political as well as an administrative issue because each party of the government was backing their respective “terrorist wings” in the city.
The root cause of the deteriorating law and order, he felt, lay in the coalition partners’ support of their terrorist wings instead of concentrating on discharging their responsibilities to maintain the law and order in the city. He said that the double standards of all the political stakeholders in the government that has made governance a joke, has made the lives of the people of the city miserable. “The hypocrisy of the coalition partners to say one thing publicly and another behind the door meeting has led to the creation of a dangerous situation in the city,” Nisar said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk