Daily Times

KARACHI: Police on Sunday arrested Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal and party leader Anees Advocate amid baton-charge and shelling to disperse hundreds of party activists as they tried to march towards Chief Minister’s House after negotiations between PSP and the ruling party ended without any consensus.

Police also arrested several party leaders, including Raza Haroon and Dr Sagheer, besides scores of party activists. Participants of the march abandoned the road and reassembled themselves near FTC bridge.

Earlier, the negotiations between leaders of PSP and PPP ended without the parties reaching any consensus, as the PSP insisted to march towards the Red Zone in Karachi but the Sindh government was reluctant to let them do so.

In the meantime, hundreds of PSP activists gathered at Shahrah-e-Faisal near FTC bridge after the provincial government imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in Karachi’s Red Zone ahead of the announced march of the PSP to the Chief Minister House.

The PSP delegation which held talks with the ruling PPP leaders was led by Raza Haroon.

The leaders of the protesting PSP workers kept announcing that they will march towards the Red Zone come what may, however law enforcement personnel erected barricades on all roads leading to the Chief Minister’s House and the Governor’s House.

The law, which prohibits the assembly of more than four people in an area, was put in place hours before the PSP had to start its march towards the CM House. A large number of anti-riot police personnel had already been deployed at the road and almost all roads leading to the city’s Red Zone had been sealed.

PSP chairman Mustafa Kamal had said on Saturday that he expected ‘one million’ people to march towards the ‘palace of the Sindh chief minister’ for their rights.

The rally was expected to move from the FTC building on Shahrah-e-Faisal. The rallying workers would register their protest against the ‘poor governance’ of the PPP government in Sindh, it had been announced.

Kamal had previously criticised the government for failing to pay any heed to his party’s 18-day sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club. “A government delegation contacted us twice but instead of resolving our issues they tried to befool people,” he had said at a press conference on Saturday.

At the time, the PSP chairman had said that the city’s Red Zone – where the Governor’s House, CM House, Sindh Assembly and other important government installations are located – was not a sacrosanct place where people could not lodge their protest.