KARACHI: Mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Saturday visited the residence of teenage student Hasnain Haider Abbasi and apologised to the family for the misbehaviour of his son. The apology was accepted by the aggrieved family.

The mayor’s son with his guards had allegedly beaten up the 19-year-old student in Defence Housing Authority on New Year’s Eve, when the complainant questioned their act of firing into the air.

The Darakhshan police had registered an FIR against the mayor’s son and eight to 10 other persons, including guards.

Mahboob Abbasi, father of the teenager, told Dawn that after an FIR was registered, Mayor Akhtar had made telephone contact with him as civil society and other activists had held a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club and in other parts of Sindh on Friday and Saturday.

Mr Abbasi said that on Saturday, Wasim Akhtar with his son visited his residence in Clifton where MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, former bureaucrat Dr Shafqat Abbasi and senior politicians Syed Ghulam Shah and Asif Baladi were also present.

The mayor admitted the “fault” of his son and apologised to the family for his son’s behaviour, added Mr Abbasi.

On this occasion, the mayor observed that such incidents should not have happened as “we all are brothers”.

Mahboob Abbasi said that he and his son accepted the apology while keeping in view the traditions of Sindh as they visited their residence. He announced that they would withdraw the FIR.

The father said that lack of proper training of children, “guns and guards” culture and vulgar display of affluence had caused tragedies in the recent past in DHA and cited the cases of Shahrukh Jatoi and Lasharis.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2020