PPP MNAs hit hard at Govt over Karachi unrest

Nabil Gabol, MNA from Lyari, said that as the National Assembly was a symbol of federation similarly Karachi was also a symbol of federation. He said if Karachi was bleeding the entire country was bleeding.He said Interior Minister Rehman Malik had announced Rs 50,000 prize for those informing the police about those people possessing illegal weapons. “I can give names of 500 such people who have illegal weapons but even then action will not be taken against them,” he added.Nabil Gabol said that all the three PPP MNAs are not called for the meetings chaired by Interior Minister about the law and order situation in Karachi. He said they were ready for any kind of sacrifices for the cause of Karachi and added that the division of Karachi was the division of Pakistan.He said that militant groups from all the political parties would have to be abolished but criminals were being protected. “We all are political people and we will have to look towards our people,” he added.Nabil demanded across the board action against the militants and said the miscreants and militants arrested in Karachi should be presented before media. He said that instead of giving monetary compensation to those killed in the building collapse in Lyari, houses should be built by the government on their plots.Fozia Wahab of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said, “The situation in Karachi depicts division among us as instead of unity we are heading towards division”. She said that innocent people were being killed in Karachi, but it was not time for mud-slinging rather practical steps should be taken to control the law and order situation in the mega city and restore peace there.She said realistic approach should be adopted as demographic reality of Karachi was being changed. Without naming MQM, she said, “people are not ready to accept it.. We will have to end division of Karachi on linguistic basis”, she added.She said,” We are all Muslims and Pakistanis and then why we are bent upon killing each other”. She added that peace in Karachi was peace in Pakistan and “we all will have to rise above differences to restore peace in the City of Lights”.Leaders from other parties also spoke. Taking part in the debate in National Assembly, Ayaz Amir of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said, “none of us has learnt any lesson from the past”. The commissionerate system was restored in the entire Sindh but later on the pressure of MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) it was abolished in Karachi and Hyderabad.He said, “We will have to think above party affiliations and interests to steer the country out of the present crisis”. He said parliamentary system was in place but there was mistrust among the people.Ayaz Amir said Sindh had its own history, it accommodated people from the entire country and welcomed millions of migrants from India in 1947. The creation of more provinces in rest of the country could not be applied in Sindh as there was feelings in the province that history “has not remained kind to us”.