Law & order in Karachi, Quetta: National Assembly adopts motion to form special committee

The National Assembly on Friday adopted a motion to constitute an special committee of the House with representation of all political parties to determine reasons of worsening law and order situation in Karachi and Quetta and report to the Lower House within 60 days.
The joint motion was moved by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Whip Sheikh Aftab Ahmed under rules 244-B at the conclusion of the 10-day long debate on law and order situation especially in Karachi and Quetta following the demand by both treasury and opposition benches that a special committee of the House should be constituted to visit both the cities to probe the causes of growing incidents of targeted killing within 30 days.
However, the timeframe was extended to two months after Haider Abbas Rizvi of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) demanded a separate committee on Karachi situation. The government opposed constitution of two committees but agreed to increase time period for submission of findings by the Committee to the Parliament from 30 to 60 days and consensus was developed in consultation with parliamentary leaders of political parties for giving one month time to the Committee for each city. The Committee would spend first month in Karachi and submit report to the Parliament and would visit Quetta afterwards.
The presiding officer asked parliamentary leaders of political parties to nominate their members for the Committee that would be visiting. Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman suggested that parliamentary leaders of all political parties need to have direct engagement with people in Karachi for first hand knowledge of their problems and reasons of growing incidents of targeted killings. He deplored that the situation in Karachi reached to a point that could not be handled or taken care of by one or two political parties and collective efforts would be required from the elected representatives of the people.
Fazlur Rehman strongly opposed use of force and underlined the need of resolving the problem through negotiation and initiation of dialogue. The members across the board wanted implementation measures that would be proposed by the committee in the light of its findings to restore peace in Karachi and Quetta.