Karachi violence rocks Pak assembly

The opposition PML-Q and MQM boycotted the session to protest the assault on two of its senior leaders.

The opposition PML-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement boycotted the session of Pakistan’s parliament to protest the assault and manhandling of two senior leaders earlier this week.

The new National Assembly, which met today for its first regular session since the election of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, witnessed a heated debate over the assault of the two leaders and the subsequent violence in Karachi that claimed 12 lives.

Opposition leaders made fiery speeches to protest the manhandling of former Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim in the Sindh assembly by Pakistan People’s Party workers on Monday and the assault of former federal minister Sher Afghan Niazi by a mob of lawyers and other persons in Lahore on Tuesday.

Led by leader of Opposition Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the members of the PML-Q, PML-F and MQM then walked out of the House. They were not swayed by requests by the ruling PPP to end the boycott.

Prime Minister Gillani strongly condemned the attacks on Rahim and Niazi and the violence that erupted in Karachi on Wednesday following clashes between two groups of lawyers.

He said the incidents were the outcome of “conspiracies, unjustified behaviour and mischievous acts” that were being fuelled by those who wanted “to derail the democratic process which this government is aspiring for, to bring about consensus, tolerance and national cohesion”.

Noting that the people had given a “clear mandate in favour of the democratic process”, he said his government would not allow “anti-democratic forces to succeed in their unholy attempts”.