Coalition shows unity against terror

KARACHI - The coalition partners in the Sindh government, including the PPP, MQM and the ANP, on Monday expressed unity to maintain peace in the metropolis.
In a meeting at the Chief Minister House, Coordination Committee of coalition parties finalised names of their representatives in all five defunct districts of the metropolis. However, names of the district coordination committees will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday).
The meeting announced that coalition partners were united and believed in durable peace of the metropolis. The committee decided that joint efforts would continue to get rid of drug and land mafia, and extremism from the city.
PPP’s Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi, MQM’s Wasim Aftab, Hamad Siddiqui and ANP’s Amin Khatak and Rana Gul Afridi attended the meeting.
The participants offered Fateha for the martyrs of May 12, 2007. They also called on the people to forge unity among their ranks to defeat the miscreants. However, MQM leaders Waseem Aftab and Hamad Siddiqui presented the national flags to the PPP’s Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi, and Amin Khatak and Rana Gul Afridi of the ANP to observe May 12 as the day of solidarity with the armed forces in their operation against terrorists in Swat, Buner and other areas.
Later, talking to The Nation, on the condition of anonymity, one of the participants of the meeting told that ANP, a coalition partner in Sindh government, NWFP and at the Centre, had recorded its strong protest against the statement of MQM Rabita Committee.
It may be recalled here that MQM Rabita Committee, in a statement the other day, had claimed that ANP leaders were supporting and sheltering the Talibans in Karachi. It further alleged that some PPP officials were also supporting the ANP and received share from land mafia, drug mafia and arms smugglers to provide a cover to their illegal activists.
When contacted, ANP Sindh General Secretary Ameen Khattak told that ANP expressed its reservations over the statement of MQM, yet the meeting was held in a peaceful environment.