HYDERABAD, Oct 21 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has held Sindh government responsible for recent bloodshed in Karachi and demanded that Sindh assembly should be suspended for a year, government and governor should be dismissed, an interim government should be set up with Chief Justice of Sindh High Court as its head and Karachi should be handed over to Army.

PML-N leader and former MNA Sahibzada Shabbir Hassan Ansari said at a news conference here on Thursday that it was the only way out to stop the ongoing blood sport in the metropolis.

He supported PPP leader Nabil Ahmed Gabol's demand for handing over control of Karachi to army. “Karachi economic engine of the country, when it is disturbed the economy of the entire country is disturbed,” he said.

He said that scores of innocent people were killed on the Ashura day and shops and property belonging to business community worth billions of rupees were set ablaze.

Then, following murder of MQM MPA Raza Hyder, over a 100 innocent lives were put to death and only during last week, more than a 100 people were gunned down but not a single culprit had been arrested so far, he regretted.

Mr Ansari said that the government was only staging farces and announcing promulgation of curfew and search operation on electronic media to give ample time to criminal elements to go underground with their weapons.

“Is it not really flabbergasting that the PPP, ANP and MQM, which are themselves “the government”, are blaming each other for the bloodshed,” he asked and wondered whom should the aggrieved families turn to when the government had ceased to exist.

He welcomed the decision of Supreme Court on the 18th Amendment and advised President Asif Zardari not to indulge in confrontation with the superior judiciary and its judgement on the NRO in letter and spirit.

He said the president should also direct his ministers to be extra careful in their choice of words when they spoke about Nawaz Sharif and other political leaders. Even the illiterate avoided using the language which the PPP ministers were in the habit of using, the PML-N leader said.

Expressing concern over prevailing situation in Balochistan, he stressed the need for a dialogue and warned that use of force would add fuel to the fire.

ANP Senior vice-president of the Awami National Party's Sindh chapter, Haji Asmatullah Khan Mehsud, has said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is levelling baseless allegations against the ANP in order to lift its image.

He said in a press statement issued on Thursday MQM was opposing military operation but when military operation could be launched in Swat, Bajaur, Malakand and Waziristan against terrorists, why it could not be launched in Karachi.

He stressed the need for ridding Karachi of Bhatta and land mafia and demanded that all political parties should support army operation against seemingly unstoppable target killings.

He urged Sindh government to take a courageous decision like Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's government to use Army's help in eradicating all mafias and terrorists from Karachi.