Daily Times

KARACHI: Authorities arrested a prominent opposition politician close to former president Asif Ali Zardari, his party said on Wednesday, the first detention of a major Pakistan People’s Party figure in an ongoing military-driven crackdown in the port city of Karachi.

The party condemned the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain – a petroleum minister in the past PPP-led government and close friend of former president Asif Ali Zardari – as politically motivated.

A senior security official in Karachi confirmed that Dr Asim Hussain was being held but would not say under what charges. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information. Most of the hundreds of people targeted by paramilitary forces in recent months on accusations of political corruption and violence belonged to another party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), which dominates Karachi’s politics but plays a smaller role on the national stage.

“These policies will lead to chaos,” said PPP lawmaker Khursheed Shah. The Sindh Rangers have in the past said the Karachi operation was necessary to break the cycle of violence and corruption in the teeming metropolis of 20 million people. Karachi accounts for half of Pakistan’s national revenues and hosts the stock exchange, central bank and two ports.