Art work by Mohsin Aziz.–Photo by Dawn Newspaper

KARACHI: They are young and ebullient. It is only two years back that they passed out from the Arts Council Institute of Arts and Crafts. What drives them in life is their creative urge to interpret nature as they see it. And it is precisely for this reason that an exhibition of their artworks attracted art lovers’ attention on its opening day at the Arts Council Karachi on Monday. The six participating artists are Samreen Idrees, Insha Arham, Samra Babar, Sana Farooq, M. Bahzad and Mohsin Aziz.

Samreen Idrees paints flowers with the utmost affection. This can be gauged by the fact that the colours she employs, despite being loud, seem to be the most important part of the subject, and not its shape or size. Even when she uses watercolor, it is the colours that stand out more than anything else.

Insha Arham’s conceptual artwork.–Photo by Dawn Newspaper

M. Bahzad chooses calligraphy to express himself. The young man definitely has talent but goes a bit overboard with his strokes. This causes his work to look a little amateurish. It is not.

Samra Babar comes up with a striking piece in which she brings into play quite a few themes at the same time. There’s a quilt-like object and the sliding zipper takes the viewer into a world within a world.

Insha Arham’s conceptual construing of flowers is quite striking, especially one of the artist’s artworks reminds the viewer of a famous Jaun Elia quatrain in which the poet implores his readers not to try and own a flower by plucking it from its stem.

Sana Farooq paints birds and does so reasonably well.

Mohsin Aziz is probably the one artist in the group who uses his imagination without feeling inhibited. His depiction of a marbles’ playing hand is impressive mainly because of the way he has painted the hand, teasing the viewer to recognise the social stratum of the person he is trying to depict. Intriguing stuff!

The exhibition will continue till May 22.

While both parties claimed their protest was peaceful, a clash-like situation was avoided in the charged atmosphere in the district with roads leading to the protest venues — one near the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam and the other outside the Karachi Press Club — being closed for traffic for some time.

Ms Hussain was shot dead in the parking area of her Defence residence on the eve of re-polling in NA-250.

Condemning the killing of their party leader, hundreds of PTI workers and supporters on Monday staged a sit-in near the Quaid-i-Azam mausoleum and demanded immediate arrest of her killers.

A large number of civil society members and number of non-government organisations workers also attended the candlelit vigil held by the participants in the sit-in after sunset. The sit-in was addressed by Aleema Khan, elder sister of PTI chief Imran Khan, and senior PTI leaders including the party’s only MNA-elect from Karachi, Dr Arif Alvi.

“The people cannot be stopped from knowing facts through harassment and fear,” said Ms Khan while addressing the sit-in.

“The Karachiites are aware of the forces which made attempts to snatch their mandate, harass them and kept the city peace disturbed. But that trend has been rejected by the Karachiites.”

She was of the opinion that past governments and security administration deliberately kept the city disturbed for their political gains, leaving people suffering.

The PTI introduced ‘fresh and peaceful politics’ in Karachi. “We have been protesting for more than a week in different parts of the city and people are witness to that. Not a single untoward incident occurred during these demonstrations,” she added.

Holding placards and banners, a large number of youngsters chanted slogans against the killing and posing their trust in Mr Khan’s leadership.

The sit-in affected traffic flow mainly on M.A. Jinnah Road and Shahrah-i-Quaideen. An official at the traffic helpline 1915 said the diversion parts of both roads were closed and vehicles were being diverted to alternative routes to avoid congestion.

MQM protest

MQM workers and supporters staged a protest demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club on Monday against PTI chief Imran Khan for accusing their party chief Altaf Hussain of the murder of PTI leader Zahra Shahid Hussain.

Holding portraits of Mr Hussain, protesters, including women and children, shouted slogans against the PTI chief and condemned him for what they said hurting their sentiments by levelling baseless allegations at their leader.

They staged a protest sit-in in front of the KPC.

All roads leading to the press club were closed for vehicular traffic and strict security arrangements were made to avert any untoward incident.

Addressing the protesters, MQM leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said: “Ms Hussain was the daughter of Karachi and it appears that her murder was a result of some internal conflict within the PTI.”

He said the people of this city came out of their homes just to lodge their protest against Mr Khan and express solidarity with the MQM leader.

Dr Siddiqui said that the PTI chief wanted to destroy the peace of the country just to cover up his defeat in the general elections.

He advised Mr Khan to approach courts instead of levelling false allegations against Mr Hussain.

He said Mr Khan’s party had signed an agreement to deprive women of their right to vote. While making tall claims about bringing youth at the helm of affairs, he nominated a 72-year-old man as the new chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa knowing the fact that he had changed at least four political parties, he said.

MQM leader and MNA-elect Nabil Gabol said that people of Sindh, including Karachi, were protesting against the ‘foul language’ used against their leader.

MQM leader Wasim Aftab said the PTI itself was involved in the killing of Ms Hussain. He added that people of Karachi would not tolerate baseless allegations against the MQM chief.

Dr Sagheer Ahmed said the PTI chief did not fulfil the requirement of Article 62 and 63 of the constitution and therefore he had no right to  sit in the assembly.

He said the church had approached the KMC many a time to relocate the garbage dump, but it was never shifted permanently and the practice of dumping and lifting garbage resumed after a few days of lodging such complaints.

Reverend Fazal said that only a portion of garbage was lifted by the KMC tractor if and when it arrived while the remaining stuff was burnt there.

The over-one-century-old wall had not only been bearing constant weight of the garbage but also the damage caused by the burning litter along it, he added.

Besides, he said, the powerful front blade of the tractor also hit the foundation of the wall.

He recalled that Monday’s was not the first collapse incident, the wall had been damaged a few times earlier also and the church had to get it repaired from its own resources though the matter had been reported to the civic agency.

Reverend Fazal said that pungent and foul smell from the garbage and the smoke when it was burnt engulfed the entire area seriously affecting not only worshippers in the church but also other visitors and traders having shops in the neighbouring market.

He said that some time back the church and the shopkeepers jointly hired a watchman to stop the civic agency staffers from dumping the garbage along the church. But sweepers again dump the garbage here in the evening after the duty hours of the watchman, he added.

He said that the church was a religious place so its sanctity demanded that garbage dump not be there and it be re-located somewhere else.

On Monday also, he said, the church again reported the matter to the KMC and submitted an application to the director office at Arambagh so that action could be taken against those involved in the practice and the damage it caused.

Besides, he said, the KMC had been requested to reconstruct the wall or compensate the damage caused to it.

The church also asked the KMC to relocate the garbage dump away from the religious place so that its sanctity was not violated any further, he added.

Meanwhile, the civic agencies — KMC and District Municipal Corporation (south) — tried to shift the blame onto each other.

Responding to Dawn queries, KMC administrator Hashim Zaidi said that it was DMC south’s area and its staffers had damaged the wall. Therefore, the DMC south chief could comment on the issue.

Responding to this reporter’s queries, DMC south chief Mustafa Jamal Qazi, who is also deputy commissioner south, said that the wall had been damaged by a KMC tractor which had gone there to lift the garbage and hit the wall in the process. It was not the first time that the garbage vehicle had damaged the wall, he added. He, however, said that he had ordered the officials concerned to start the construction of the wall on Tuesday morning.

In response to another question, Mr Qazi said that he would also look into the issue of relocating the garbage dump away from the church so that not only the sanctity of the religious place was ensured but the worshippers and well as the others did not face any hardship due to the foul smell or smoke released owing to garbage burning.

Church’s history

One of the most beautiful stone buildings of the colonial era the Scotch Church of St Andrew’s is located along the Preedy Street and is flanked by Garden Road on one side and Victoria Road (now Abdullah Haroon Road) on the other.

Having a capacity for 400 worshippers, the church design is a blend of Romanesque and Venetian Gothic styles and its foundation stone was laid by Robert Napier, commander in chief of Bombay Army in February 1867 and was completed in December 1878 at a cost of Rs56,300. The most attractive element of the church, which could be seen while entering from an octagonal porch at the south corner, is the finely carved rose window. It is 18 feet in diameter and placed at the south end. Its tower became the tallest church tower in the city in 1904 when two upper floors of the Holy Trinity Church tower were taken down.

Located in the centre of Karachi, the land of the church had become very expensive and many attempts had been made in the past by various people, including some community members, to change the purpose of its land use in official documents from religious to commercial. They wanted that hundreds of shops be constructed on all the four sides of the church, but all such attempts had so far been foiled by the efforts of some committed individuals and its precious land, conservatively priced at billions of rupees, remains protected.

Some time back, the Sindh Assembly also recommended that its land use not be changed and it should only be used for religious purpose.

The killing sparked violent protests in the area, with armed youths taking to the streets, firing into the air and forcibly closing businesses.

The police said that SNM leader Qasim Chandio along with his nephew Suleman left his house in Jauhar Complex to meet some relatives at an area hospital.

He was riding a motorcycle and when they reached near the Mosamiat Roundabout, apparently a lone assailant, also riding a motorbike, fired at him from behind and escaped.

They said that the bullet hit him in the head and he was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Later, the body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Quoting witnesses, Mobina Town SHO Jamal Laghari said that there was a single attacker who was riding a motorcycle.

He said that the victim was also the president of a union of Jauhar Complex and there was a dispute between him and members of his rival party.

The whole area reverberated with heavy gunfire when the news of his killing spread. Gunmen forced closure of shops and other commercial activities in Jauhar Complex, Safoora Goth and Sachal and closed the main road for vehicular traffic.

A police team, led by Sachal SHO Zakib Goga, reached the scene and tried to disperse the protesters who had blocked the road linking the area with the Superhighway. However, someone from the Jauhar Complex opened fire and a bullet hit the SHO in the abdomen, said Malir SSP Mazhar Nawaz Sheikh.

He said that the wounded officer was admitted to a private hospital.

The police took action and detained three men and recovered arms from their possession, the SSP added.

The SNM chief, Ali Hasan Chandio, said that the victim was the central general secretary of the party and had remained active in politics for the past 15 years.

He believed that there were four to five attackers and blamed workers of his rival party for the killing.

He said about six months ago, two workers sustained bullet wounds when the SNM’s vice chairman was attacked in the same area.

Mr Chandio said that his party named the suspects in the FIR but the police did not take any action.

He said that an FIR would be lodged after the burial to be held in Qasim Chandio’s ancestral village in Larkana.

An analysis of the unofficial results of the NA-250 constituency shows that when the polling ended on May 11, Dr Alvi had got over 59,000 votes.

He bagged 17,519 more votes in the May 19 re-polling on 43 polling stations of the constituency. His final tally climbed to 77,365 votes against Ms Shujaat’s 30,365 votes whose party had boycotted the re-polling.

The overall turnout on both days of polling, May 11 and May 19, was 35.48 per cent. Total 129,725 votes were cast and 1,319 of them were rejected.

There were 32 candidates in the NA-250 constituency. Niamatullah Khan of the Jamaat-i-Islami got 11,698 votes. His party had also boycotted the May 19 polling and it had pulled out its candidates in Karachi and Hyderabad on May 11.

The NA-250 constituency had two corresponding provincial assembly seats — PS-112 and PS-113 — and PTI candidates Khurram Sher Zaman and Samar Ali Khan won them, respectively.

Mr Zaman and Mr Khan bagged 33,560 and 38,247 votes, respectively.

Hafiz Muhammad Sohail of the MQM got 22,973 votes in PS-112 and Salim Zia of the PML-N polled 11,753 votes in PS-113.

In PS-112, 67,586 votes were cast and 911 of them were rejected. The turnout was recorded at 41.52pc.

In PS-113, total 64,160 votes were cast and 1,065 of them were rejected. The turnout was 31.64pc.

Karamullah Waqasi of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Ali Rashid of the MQM, whose parties had boycotted the re-polling in 43 polling stations on Sunday, secured third position in the PS-112 and 113 constituencies, as they bagged 4,168 and 10,532 votes, respectively.

Regional Election Commissioner Tanveer Zaki told Dawn that the result of NA-250 would be consolidated on Tuesday and after announcement of the consolidated results a petition could be filed within 45 days with the secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The secretary would forward the petition to a relevant tribunal, which would have to decide it within 120 days.

The ECP, which was empowered after the 18th amendment to the constitution to constitute tribunals, has already appointed three tribunals comprising retired district and sessions judges.

Izzat Khan was found guilty of killing his brother-in-law, Fazal Amin, in August 2008 over a domestic dispute in Orangi.

District and Sessions Judge (west) Shahnawaz Tariq pronounced the judgement after recording evidence of witnesses and hearing final arguments from both sides.

The court also directed the convict to pay Rs100,000 as Diyat or compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased.

Despite being subjected to lengthy questioning, the evidence of the witnesses remained consistent on material points and the same was corroborated with the medical and other documentary evidence, the court observed.

The court also held the convict accountable for making an attempt on the life of another brother-in-law and jailed him for 10 years and asked him to pay Rs25,000 to the victim. In case of non-payment, the convict would undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, the accused used to beat up his wife and she left his house in August 2008 and was residing with her parents. However, after a few days the accused visited his in-laws’ house in order to bring his wife back, but her brothers refused, which angered the accused and he left.

The accused came there again and attacked his brothers-in-law, Fazal Amin and Saleem Khan, with an axe. Later, Fazal succumbed to his wounds.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Saleem at the Orangi Town police station.

The convict was  sent to prison along with a conviction warrant to serve out the sentences. The court ruled that the capital punishment was subject to the confirmation of the high court.

According to the court staff, a man made a call at 9am from his mobile phone to the office of Malir District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Yamin and told one of the staff members about the presence of a bomb in the court. The police backed by the bomb disposal squad personnel cordoned off the area and carried out a thorough search for three hours but found no explosive material.—Staff Reporter

The participants in the meeting reviewed post-election situation with specific reference to the brewing developments in Karachi and decided to plan a future strategy in consultation with the party leadership.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: “The people ought to accept mandate of the people instead of creating political unrest.”

The PTI leader described the murder of Zahra Shahid as a dastardly and cowardly act and warned that their peace-loving posture should not be taken as their weakness. He made it clear that if the killers of Zahra Shahid were not brought to book, protests and sit-ins would continue across the country.

Meanwhile, Fateha Soyem of Zahra Shahid was held at her residence.

A large number of PTI workers and central and provincial leaders were present there. The sister of PTI chairman Imran Khan, Aleema Khan, also attended the Soyem. She offered condolences on behalf of Imran Khan to the mother of the deceased and her both daughters.

On the occasion moving scenes were witnessed when women who came to attend Fateha Soyem became emotional and tears rolled down their eyes.

Aleema Khan said Mr Khan was in shock and quite worried about the security of his party activists and would be visiting Karachi soon after his recovery.

The police added that the MQM worker was gunned down in Orangi Town, while the MQM-H activist was gunned down in Landhi.

They said that MQM worker Muhammad Jamal, 42, was targeted by two gunmen near his residence in Orangi 11 ½. The assailants rode away after the shooting.

Iqbal Market SHO Amjad Kayani said that the victim was a driver in the district municipal committee.

MQM-H worker killed

The MQM-H worker, Kamran, 20, was passing by a private school in a Landhi-36 street when three gunmen intercepted him and one of them fired a single shot at him and fled, police said.

The officials added that the victim sustained a bullet wound in the head and died on the spot.

The body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

Man gunned down in Khokhrapar

A young man was gunned down at route P-1 minibus terminal in Khokrapar.

Police said that Mehtab, 30, left his residence and as per routine was supposed to meet up his cousin to go to their workplace in a factory when four armed men riding two motorcycles targeted him.

Khokhrapar SHO Nawaz Ali Shah said that the victim’s brother was also murdered sometime ago.

He said that the family did not want to pursue the case as they even did not allow doctors at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to conduct a post-mortem examination.

The police suspected some personal enmity behind the murder.

Killing in Nazimabad

A young man was gunned down in Nazimabad on Monday, police said.

They said that Junaid Fayyaz, 30, was targeted near the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. He was taken to the same hospital where he died during treatment.

The victim was married recently and had gone to meet his in-laws when the incident occurred.

The police suspected some personal enmity as a likely motive for the killing.

He was a resident of Orangi Town and dealt in mobile phones.

Property dealer shot dead

A property dealer was gunned down near the Airport traffic intersection, police said.

Nasir Mehmood, 30, left his estate agency office in Al-Falah and was on his way home in Punjab Town late on Sunday night when he was killed.

Airport SHO Abdul Ghaffar Korai suspected that the victim might have been killed while resisting a mugging bid.

A case was registered against unknown assailants.

Passer-by killed

A passer-by was killed by suspected robbers in the Denso Hall area, said the Mithadar police.

They said that some robbers tried to loot a shop selling generators whose owner immediately closed its shutter.

A police patrol also reached the scene and the robbers stated firing and a bullet hit a passerby, later identified as Yaqub Ibrahim, 45, said Mithadar SHO Zafar Iqbal.

The wounded was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where doctors pronounced him dead.

The deceased was a lift operator in the State Life of Pakistan.

Both parties having gone too far need to contain themselves and avoid provocative speeches as ‘peaceful’ protests after such statements from their leaderships can easily descend into violence, observers say.

When asked about the conflict between the PTI and the MQM, cultural commentator Hasan Zaidi says, “This polarization is not good for the city. There have been irresponsible statements from both sides. People are too quick to get angry partly because not enough credence is given to one’s position.

“Karachi is a non-homogeneous city and to expect that everyone thinks the same way is not only foolish but also dangerous.”

He says the PTI claiming that people have been forced to vote for the MQM is silly. “Similarly the MQM claiming that only ‘burgers’ voted for the PTI in NA-250 is also silly. There is a dynamic working here [in the city] and both parties need to accept it. Provocative claims and provocative statements are not going to help things,” he adds.

Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based senior journalist, says that the parties cannot take things too far otherwise there may be repercussions in the form of attacks.

“Imran Khan needs to be realistic. He has to realise that his party leader in Karachi Arif Alvi has to work and live in the city. Imran Khan should have restrained himself and his party members should control their language,” says Mr Yusufzai.

About the MQM, he says, “The MQM thinks that Karachi is its turf and needs to have complete monopoly. The MQM cannot behave the way it is behaving right now.”

When MQM leader Wasay Jalil is asked if his party is overreacting to the PTI’s statements, he says, “The MQM is not overreacting. Besides, we will not do anything that is against the law.

“I think Mr Imran Khan is frustrated because he has lost the mandate in Punjab and in Sindh. He wants to gain popularity through the MQM but it will not help him because it will unite the party even more. He should avoid using the language that he is using which is more suited to the lower-tier of a party. Also despite bomb blasts on the MQM prior to the elections we could not hold any election rally yet on May 11 people came out and voted for us. I am not saying that they only voted for us but also for the PTI and other parties because people will vote for other parties too. Mr Khan must avoid those statements that provoke the workers of MQM.”

Nadir Leghari, the Sindh PTI president, is equally convinced of his party’s stance. He says, “Imran Khan knew that the threats were being given to our party members. At least he had the courage to say what he said. The kind of language used by the other side was unacceptable.

“However, we do feel that the murder that has taken place there has circumstantial evidence and that we need to get the facts together.”

As for the way forward, both party leaders say that they are protesting that is well within their right to do so.

Mr Jalil claims there is no tension in the city and that their party has maintained law and order during their protests while Mr Leghari says that theirs is a peace movement and have been given the mandate to protect people’s voice. However, Mr Zaidi hopes that the conflict goes down between the two parties.