Civil society, rights groups term polls’ postponement ‘harmful’ to Karachi, other cities

Representatives of civil society and rights groups on Saturday emphasised the role of empowered local governments to ease the difficulties of the people arising out of monsoon rains.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC), an allaince of rights groups in Karachi, organised the meeting, where participants were in agreement that the postponement of the second phase of the local government elections was harmful to Karachi and Hyderabad divisions.

Prominent among participants were Karamat Ali, Asad Iqbal Butt, Saeed Baloch, Sheema Kirmani, Farhat Perween, Shahnaz Ahad, Noorullah Tareen, Abdul Khaliq Junejo, Amanullah Shaikh, and Mahnaz Rahman. They demanded that the elections should be held as soon as possible.

They also discussed the Hyderabad tragedy and emphasised the need for maintaining communal harmony among various ethnicities living in the province.

They said that the influx of population into Karachi should be regulated and there should be a check and balance system to monitor it. They also asked the government to follow the procedures adopted by developed countries in this regard.

In the meeting, a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s fact-finding team was also shared which said that incident was the result of a personal feud and did not happen because of the hatred between two ethnic groups.

As for immigrants from Afghanistan, they should be registered as refugees and should be sent back to their country, they said.

The JAC also demanded that the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement and the local Sindhi population should neither be targeted nor held responsible for Hyderabad and Sohrab Goth incidents. Only the persons involved in these incidents should be punished according to law, they said.

The meeting’s participants agreed to issue a statement to condemn Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, former National Accountability Bureau chairman and current head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, for allegedly harassing women and victims of enforced disappearances. They also criticised the political parties that, instead of condemning the harasser, chose to keep quiet. They suggested that the Supreme Court should take action against the alleged harasser.