KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan head Dr Farooq Sattar on Saturday lashed out at the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government for “misusing” a Supreme Court order to displace common people from their houses to save the “land mafia”.
“We
will not allow the government to punish innocent citizens for the
crimes of the land mafia and influential persons,” he said while
speaking at a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club. “We
respect the judiciary but will not allow the provincial government to
displace people of Karachi from their homes.”
The
MQM-P organised the demonstration to support those people whose houses
are under threat of demolition because these units had been constructed
by the “land mafia” on encroached land.
‘We respect the judiciary but will not allow the provincial government to displace people’
A number of MQM workers and supporters, including those
whose houses are under threat of demolition, converged in front of the
Karachi Press Club to lodge their protest against what they termed was
“a biased” anti-encroachment drive.
The protesters,
including women, were carrying MQM flags, banners and placards inscribed
with demands to stop displacing people; bring the land mafia to
justice, etc.
Dr Sattar made it clear that Saturday’s
demonstration was not in any way against the apex court, but in protest
over the indifferent attitude of the Sindh government. “We are with the
judiciary and the government in any operation against the land mafia and
their influential patrons. But we are with the common man who bought
plots and built their homes.”
He said that every MQM
lawmaker and worker would stand shoulder to shoulder with the affected
people and they would together face the action.
He said
still government and private land in the metropolis was being occupied
by influential persons under the patronage of the government.
The
MQM-P head asked the federal and provincial governments to consider the
issue on humanitarian grounds and provide relief to those who
constructed their houses with their lifelong savings.
“We are with these common people if they are punished for crimes of the land mafia,” he said.
He asked the Sindh government why it was not arresting those who made billions through land grabbing.
He condemned the demolition of a sports complex of the Okhai Memon Jamaat.
Speaking
on the occasion, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar praised the apex court’s
decision to get amenity plots vacated from all type of encroachments.
However,
he said the government was well aware of the people responsible for
“china cutting” and encroachment in the garb of a goth-abad scheme. “The
court should also take notice of it.”
He said he tasked
the legal team of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to help the
affected persons and plead their case before the apex court.
Later, the protesters staged a token sit-in for a brief period and dispersed peacefully.
