PTI Karachi MPs meet interior minister, AG to discuss security situation, LG bill

A delegation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers from Karachi spent a busy day on Thursday as they met the federal interior minister, the attorney general and the party’s central chief organiser to discuss and seek guidance on various affairs, including the draft for amending the local government bill in the Sindh Assembly, the law and order situation in Karachi and the party’s organisational structure.

Led by opposition leader in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi, the PTI lawmakers met Federal Interior Minister Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Ahmed Shah and discussed the law and order situation in Karachi.

MNA Aftab Siddiqui, MPAs Sidra Imran, Bilal Ghaffar, Dr Imran Shah, Rabia Azfar and Riaz Haider were prominent among the delegation. The delegation discussed Karachi’s security situation with Shah and said that anti-peace elements had become active to destroy peace in the province.

“A cracker attack in the city on Wednesday and a series of attacks on Rangers personnel show that anti-statement elements want to create chaos in the country by carrying out such cowardly attacks,” said Naqvi.

The PTI delegation also met Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Javed Khan at his office and presented him with a copy of the draft for amendments to the local government laws submitted in the Sindh Assembly. The delegation also briefed the attorney general about the bill’s key features.

Calling the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2013 the main reason for the civic issues of the people of the province, Naqvi said that the prevailing situation bore witness to the provincial government’s failure to solve the urban population’s problems.

“The existing laws have made the local bodies powerless and ineffective, because of which Sindh’s cities have been suffering,” he said. Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the attorney general to immediately appeal to the apex court for an early hearing of and decision on the petition related to Article 140-A that was filed in the top court.

The PTI Karachi delegation also met the party’s chief organizer, Saifullah Niazi, at the party’s secretariat and discussed the political situation of the province, particularly Karachi, the party’s organisational structure and the upcoming local government polls.

Niazi said that after winning the majority of seats of national and provincial assemblies in Karachi in the 2018 general polls, the PTI would win the local government polls across the province now. “The residents of Sindh are frustrated with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for its worst performance, bad governance and the corruption in its 12 years-rule, and the PTI is the only party that develops the province,” he said.