LAHORE - Veteran leader Begum Abida Hussain has proposed that Karachi should be handed over to the army because it was in a better position to deal with terrorists and clear the cosmopolitan city of all illegal weapons.
Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, the former ambassador to the US said Karachi was the most  important city for national economy and it could not be left to the mercy of terrorists and outlaws.
Once peace was restored to Karachi, situation in rest of the country would automatically normalize, she believed.
If Karachi remained under the control of terrorists, how long could Lahore stay peaceful, she asked. Begum Abida recalled that even MQM chief Altaf Hussain wanted the army to play its role in restoring peace to the country’s biggest city. Once this was done, dealing with terrorists and extremists elsewhere in the country would become easier, she argued.
CONDOLENCE:  Meanwhile, former NA speaker Syed Fakhr Imam and his spouse Begum Abida Hussain offered condolences over the death of Baloch leader Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri.
 In a statement, the couple said they were great admirers of the Baloch leader who they said was an idealist.
The late Baloch leader, Imam and Abida said, was a humanist, who wanted to eradicate poverty from the country and give all regions their due rights.
Nawab Marri, they said, had thoroughly read Marxism, Leninism and Maoism and was a knowledgeable leader.
In his death we have lost an elder brother, Fakhr Imam and Abida said.