• PPP office, PTI meeting come under midnight attacks in district Central
• Both parties accuse MQM-P of escalation
• FIR registered against nominated Muttahida workers

KARACHI: The otherwise peaceful election environment in the metropolis suffered a setback on Sunday when two major parties — the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Peoples Party — accused the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan of attacking their respective offices in a bid to stop their election activities in Karachi’s district Central.

The two parties asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to take strict action against the MQM-P.

While the PPP nominated MQM-P workers in an FIR registered at the Hyderi Market police station, the Azizabad police registered a case against ‘unknown persons’ on the complaint of the PTI.

The PTI said that they gave to police the names of MQM-P workers and videos of the attack on their workers, but despite that the law enforcers registered an FIR against ‘unknown persons’.

A spokesperson for the PTI, Falak Almas, said that the MQM-P workers attacked their NA-248 candidate Arsalan Khalid and other workers who were busy in Quran khwani in Azizabad.

The Azizabad police said that complainant Arsalan Khalid had organised a milad at an empty plot without informing them.

They said that it was not a political or election-related event.

According to the FIR, the complainant said that at around midnight around 100-200 unidentified men wearing masks entered the place where a milad was underway. They attacked Arsalan Khalid and his other colleagues with sticks causing injuries to him in the head.

Central SSP Faisal Chachar said that a case on charges of rioting and criminal intimidation was registered.

Later in the evening, the PTI held a protest outside the provincial election commission office.

The party demanded that the provincial election commission take strict action against the MQM-P.

PTI-Sindh general secretary Advocate Ali Palh along with other lawyers met ECP officials to record their protest and share their concerns regarding security of their candidates and workers.

The PTI leader said they had stayed at the police station all night, but their complaint was not entertained by the police despite the fact that they provided names of the MQM-P men involved in the attack.

Attack on PPP office

The PPP said that 40-50 workers of the MQM-P attacked the election office of party candidate from NA-250 Khawja Sohail Mansoor in North Nazimabad on Saturday night.

Complainant Abdul Zahid Rana lodged an FIR and stated that the attackers ransacked the office, used abusive language against the PPP leaders and damaged their portraits.

He said that there were only four PPP workers present in the office at the time of the incident. “They beat us and forcibly expelled us from the office and threatened us to not open any office in district Central,” he stated in the FIR.

The police registered a case against nominated MQM-P workers on charges of rioting and criminal intimidation.

Later in the day, PPP leaders Saeed Ghani, Khawaja Sohail, Masroor Ahsan and others accused the MQM-P of attacking their office in district Central in their separate press conferences.

Speaking at a press conference held to announce joining of PPP by many MQM-P workers, Mr Ghani wondered as to how a peaceful election could be held when offices of political parties were coming under attacks.

He said that the MQM-P had resorted to negative tactics after seeing its defeat in the Feb 8 elections.

In another press conference, PPP district central leaders appealed to their opponents not to escalate violence in the metropolis, adding that they won’t allow the destabilisation of peace in the city.

They urged the election commission to prevent any conflicts under any circumstances.

The PPP leader claimed that intruders brandished arms in their office and alleged that MQM-P, in shock from recent defections to PPP, attacked their office.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2024