ISLAMABAD: The senators belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) demanded on Monday a military operation against terrorists in Karachi.

The demand came when ANP’s Shahi Syed drew the Senate’s attention to what he called the continued targeted killing of his party’s workers as well as Pakhtuns in the city.

The opposition senators also staged a token walkout with the ANP members to express solidarity with them.

Chairman Nayyar Bokhari sought a report from the Sindh government on targeted killings in Karachi.

Also read: Karachi operation

Supporting the ANP’s call for the military action, Nasreen Jalil of the MQM said it was her party which had been demanding an army operation against terrorists in Karachi where Taliban were strengthening their presence. The senator said she had even written a letter to the prime minister on the issue.

She said that not only the Pakhtuns, but the Sindhis and Urdu-speaking people were also being targeted by terrorists, adding that issues being faced by the ANP and her party were not different from each other.

Senator Jalil condemned the killing of ANP leaders and workers in Karachi and said the Taliban had also targeted the MPAs of her party which could not run the election campaign in 2013 because of terrorism.

“Why are the murderers being protected? Why is a military operation not being carried out in Karachi?” asked Shahi Syed while speaking on a point of order at the outset of the proceedings. “Launch a military operation in Karachi to clean it of filth. Don’t force us to pick up weapons.”

The ANP leader claimed that billions of rupees were being collected as extortion in the city. He regretted that ANP’s third Karachi president had been killed but not a single killer was arrested.

ANP’s Ilyas Bilour held Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan responsible for what he called continued genocide of the Pakhtuns and asked the rulers to quit if they could not protect people.

Senator Haji Adeel of the ANP claimed that so far over 1,200 activists and ministers of the party and their children had been killed by terrorists. Most of the victims belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said.

HEC PERFORMANCE: The senators later took part in a debate on the performance of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on a motion moved by PPP’s Farhatullah Babar. They expressed dissatisfaction over the HEC’s performance, with the mover saying the commission was “strangulating” the universities, instead of promoting the cause of higher education in the country.

Minister of State for Education Balighur Rehman informed the house that the government had taken steps to improve HEC’s performance and the standard of education. He said transparency was being ensured in distribution of funds to universities and appointments and other affairs in the HEC.

Speaking on another motion by ANP’s Haji Adeel, opposition senators criticised the government for nonpayment of net hydel profit to the KP government in line with the AGN Kazi formula and Arbitration Award of 2006.

Terming it “injustice” to the people of KP, the ANP senators urged the ruling PML-N to take steps to remove the sense of deprivation among the people of smaller provinces.

Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt, who specially attended the session, informed the senators about legal aspects of the government’s decision to increase 5 per cent additional general sales tax on all petroleum products.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2015

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