A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior, convened to discuss Karachi mayhem, was adjourned on Friday without any business, as DG Rangers, IG Sindh and Home Secretary Sindh could not turn up.
The standing committee has directed DG Rangers, IG Sindh and Home Secretary to ensure their presence in the next meeting to explain why violence took place in Karachi on May 12 that claimed more than 40 lives and left a large number seriously wounded.
The meeting that took place here with Sardar Talib Hussain Nakai in the chair condemned Karachi carnage, suicide attacks one targeting Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao in Charsadda and the other in Peshawar. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said President Musharraf was chairing a high-level meeting about law and order situation in Karachi and suggested that the standing committee meeting should be adjourned till the availability of concerned officials.
The opposition members, including Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Naheed Khan, Manzoor Hussain Wasan and Mian Muhammad Aslam flatly rejected preliminary findings of the Karachi carnage, saying DG Rangers, IG Sindh and Home Secretary should appear before the committee to brief law and order situation in the city.
PPP member Manzoor Hussain Wasan suggested that they should not make it an opposition versus government issue rather they should discuss it seriously to ascertain facts. Mian Aslam of MMA questioned why the government had not constituted any inquiry committee to probe into the violent incident. "I am surprised why they have not formed an inquiry committee so far," he questioned. "DG Rangers, IG Sindh and Home Secretary should be summoned... only then we can discuss the issue," Naheed Khan insisted.
However, State Minister for Law and Justice Shahid Akram Bhinder came hard on the opposition and said it was not serious to debate the issue. He said the government had even agreed to hold a two-day debate in the Parliament but the opposition did not respond positively. Well, the opposition members did not oppose the government's request to adjourn the meeting for the time being but they demanded that the meeting should be convened within ten days.
The Interior Minister assured the committee members that the availability of all the relevant officials would be conveyed to Chairman Talib Hussain Nakai in next couple of days. The opposition members demanded of the government to explain in the next meeting as to why rangers and police did not act to control the violence that claimed over 40 lives.
They wanted to know who actually ordered to block Shahrah-e-Faisal and other highways leading to airport and Sindh High Court. They also challenged expulsion order of lawyers who accompanied Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The opposition members demanded provision of complete record regarding how many FIRs have been registered after the killing of at least 40 people and the reasons behind disposing of an FIR registered by Karachi Bar Association. After the brief proceedings, Chairman Talib Hussain Nakai adjourned the meeting.