KARACHI: The Sindh government on Tuesday offered talks to the Lyari gangsters if they surrender themselves, the Sindh Information Minister said.
Shazia Marri said on Tuesday that those who think that they have taken up arms ‘for their defence’ should surrender and enter into a dialogue with the government.She added that the government — faced with growing criticism from rights and relief organisations over the lack of planning for possible displacement of the people before launching the police operation — is using “guns to end crimes” in Lyari.
The provincial government on Tuesday also claimed to have chalked out an elaborate plan of relief and protection for the affectees in five districts of Karachi.Marri was speaking at a press conference at the New Sindh Secretariat in connection with Labour Day in which she highlighted the achievements of the government for the labour class.
Asked about the alleged killings of labourers and their displacement from Lyari, the information minister said the government launched the operation with a “heavy heart.” She said the operation in Karachi especially in Lyari which is considered the heart of the city was a “major concern” for the government. However, Marri said it has become ‘imperative’ after ‘some events’ to adopt a strategy to prevent crimes and killings in the city’s oldest part. In a reference to displacement of Lyariites, she admitted that they did not consider it a “good omen.”
The minister claimed that an elaborate plan of relief has been prepared which would be shared with the media in another briefing.About allegations that the president’s close relative was ‘supervising’ the operation in Lyari, Marri said it was a “wrong perception.”
To a question about widespread protest by the Baloch and Sindhi people against the Lyari operation, Marri opined the protesters might have been moved by the hardships being faced by the people there and these protests should not be construed as support for a few criminals.
She avoided questions about claims of the police that Taliban and the Baloch Liberation Army were involved in the Lyari disturbances.The information minister condemned the killings of cops and innocent persons.
Highlighting a huge list of achievements of the present PPP-led regime for the working class, the information minister also took PML-N leaders to task and accused that the workers in Punjab especially in factories were working under “worse conditions.”
She said instead of providing relief to the poor people, the Punjab government was more interested in distributing laptops, which according to her, were now being sold in markets.
Marri said the Sharif brothers now considered themselves as claimants of the rights of the workers and democracy but during their tenure in the mid-1990s, Nawaz Sharif terminated the services of 7,000 employees of the United Bank Ltd against whom the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had launched a march in Karachi. Though the bank was later privatised during era of Gen Pervez Musharraf, it was the case of grave injustice with the workers. Not only this, the Sharif regime also expelled over 8,000 workers of different federal entities.
Restoration of services of 6,000 workers, granting 12pc share to the workers in different organizations, restoration of unions, increasing minimum wage up to Rs8,000, regularisation of services of thousands of contract employees and granting rights to the workers to approach labour courts, tribunal and commission were some of the achievements of the PPP-led regime, said the information minister.
In a related development, the Minister for Rehabilitation Muzaffar Shujra said five relief camps have been set up in five districts of Karachi under the supervision of deputy commissioners. Shujra added around 20,000 bags of ration were being provided at these relief camps where full protection would be provided to those affected by the Lyari operation.
Speaking at press conference at the PPP Sindh media cell, the rehabilitation minister said the Lyari operation was a ‘small effort’ against those miscreants who have destroyed the peace in the country and were creating hurdles for peace in Karachi. He said certain “political orphans” were involved in a propaganda that the operation was against the Baloch.
– Agencies
