Pakistan: Karachi faces 'return to ethnic violence' over Sindh local govt law

Pakistan's largest city, Karachi has witnessed "fear of return to ethnic violence" in the third-largest province of Pakistan over the passage of the Sindh Local Government Amendment Act by the provincial government.

Nearly all the opposition parties in Sindh had been protesting for weeks over the passage of the Sindh Local Government Amendment Act by the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government, Dawn reported.

The opposition parties include Jamaat-i-Islami, which had been staging a sit-in in front of the Sindh Assembly against the law for close to a month.

According to Dawn newspaper, while the JI was about to extend the scope of its protest, Karachi city witnessed violent incidents in past days in which a Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist Aslam Khan was killed.

Following this event, fears had begun to mount of renewed ethnic and political violence in the city. However, the agreement between the Sindh government and the JI on Thursday night to call off the dharna is a positive development.

Dawn reported that almost a month-long sit-in being held by the Jamaat-i-Islami outside the Sindh Assembly building in protest bore fruit on January 27 when the Pakistan Peoples Party government in the province agreed to further amend the law that would give back control of major administrative affairs, including health, education, water supply and sewerage system, to the local administration.

A large number of JI workers and supporters, including women and children, had protested by holding placards and banners against the PPP government in Sindh.

(ANI)

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