Police arrested Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chapter Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Friday after he gave a protest call for a rally and sit-in on Shahrah-e-Faisal to protest against K-Electric. Later, he was released after detention at Brigade Police Station. More than a dozen workers of the JI were also arrested from outside Idara Noor-e-Haq.
JI officials said their sit-in was aimed at registering a protest against the KE in connection with excessive tariff, overcharging and several other unjust policies. However, the city administration did not grant permission to the party to hold a sit-in on the ground that it would cause problems for smooth flow of traffic on the main traffic artery of Karachi.
The busiest Shaarey Faisal became battleground between police and protesters as police resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse the demonstrators while the protesters pelted them with stones and brunt tires blocking the road and creating severe hardships to the passing by motorists for hours. JI has been running a campaign against the power utility. A few days ago, protest demonstrations were held at 50 spots across the city. Naeem had also become a party in NEPRA's hearing against KE.
"Should they not grant us permission for peaceful demonstration, which is our democratic right, our party will give a call of city-wide protests", said Hafiz Naeem. He also demanded of the authorities to release the JI workers. He said what the K-Electric was doing to the residents of Karachi was nothing but terrorism. He vowed JI would not allow over-billing.
District Co-ordination Officer (DCO), East, said that the JI would be held responsible for any kind of loss and chaos during the protest. Heavy contingent of police deployed around the party office and the roads leading to it has reportedly been blocked by placing a container.
A picture was uploaded by a JI worker on his twitter account reportedly from a police station. He said that they wanted to protest power outages being faced by the public but police is harassing party activists for that. The JI Karachi chapter chief told newsmen that the government was bent upon state terrorism. He asked the workers not to create anarchy. He said JI was also ready to hold talks with the government.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Siraj ul Haq, while talking to a private news channel warned that if the party activists not released within an hour, he would announce an action plan. Meanwhile a JI Spokesman claimed that the party's Karachi deputy chief Muhammad Islam got hurt when a teargas shell hit him in his head while another JI worker received bullet injuries and was shifted to a local hospital for medical treatment. Earlier Hafiz Naeemur Rehman spoke to the supporters and said that the rulers have sold out the interests of masses for the sake of their own monetary benefits.
He said that the KE's line losses are still at previous levels, its production has still not been increased but its profit has increased in multiple folds. He exclaimed how it was made possible. He said KE had illegally been charging bank fees, meter rent, besides issuing excessive bills to masses.
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