Demand for arrest of Bhatti`s killers

KARACHI, March 20: Speakers at a condolence meeting condemned the murder of Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti and demanded that the murderers must be immediately arrested, tried and given the maximum punishment according to the law.

Speaking at the meeting organised by the Citizens for Democracy and the Karachi Union of Journalists at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, they said that “the extremist forces” had killed Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and they were trying to muzzle the liberal democratic voices in the country.

They said that it was high time that the nation remembered what the Quaid-i-Azam had said in his famous 11th August 1947 speech in the Constituent Assembly that everyone was an equal citizen and that religion was not the business of the state.

They said that the country could progress only if the Quaid`s vision was followed.

Sindh chief minister`s adviser Kaiser Bengali said that no one was allowed to take the law into their own hands and go about killing people.

The law demanded that any violation of the law should be reported to police and that the police would take action prescribed in the law and then courts would try the suspect, he said.

He said a dialogue should be held with those who were supporting the laws introduced by Gen Ziaul Haq and if they supported these laws, then they should also support that these laws were implemented in the way prescribed in the law.

Senator Hasil Bizenjo claimed that the clerics and the establishment had joined hands to strengthen each other and to work against liberal democratic forces.

He said that he was not even worried about the extremists because “they are heavily dependent on the establishment for support” and the minute it was withdrawn, the extremists would disappear.

He also made it clear that true religious leaders were not behind this extremism which was practised by vested interests who misused religion to achieve their goals.

Jeay Sindh Mahaz leader Abdul Khaliq Junejo said that religion should be separated from state affairs.

He said extremism being experienced in the country nowadays had been predicted by G.M. Syed and he had said that religion was being injected into the state affairs of Pakistan and very soon the nation would be divided in the name of religions, sects, etc, and the people would be killing one another.

Labour Party Pakistan leader Nair Mansoor said that no specific religion should be made a state religion and followers of all religions should be recognised as having equal rights.

He said extremism had increased due to the support of the United States and Saudi Arabia during the Afghan war in 1980s.

MNA Kishwar Zehra said that owing to the rampant poverty and illiteracy in the country extre-mist forces easily found people who could be made to do whatever they were asked.

She urged the people to join hands to restore the Pakistan as had been envisaged by the Quaid-i-Azam.

Former minister Iqbal Haider said that extremists had terrorised every section of the nation and said that the electronic media which reached everywhere all the time had not come to this condolence meeting being held in the press club.

Nauman Qadri, William Sadiq, Fahim-uz-Zaman, Ahsan, Bishop Khadim Bhutto, Rochiram, Mushtaq Matoo, Hilda Saeed, Father Pascal, Mirza Maqbool, Mohammad Saleh, Tabinda, Momin Khan Momin and others also spoke.

After the meeting the people came out of the press club and held a candlelit vigil.