KARACHI: Former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza announced on Sunday that the Lyari peace committee, popularly known as People’s Amn Committee, would be revived and said it would now play a more active role for people’s welfare.
Addressing a press conference in Lyari, he challenged Interior Minister Rehman Malik to visit Lyari and ban the committee. He said the committee had voluntarily closed its offices on his instructions and “no-one can ban the Amn committee”.
Dr Mirza said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would contest the next elections from Lyari.
Answering a question, he said he had submitted his resignation from the Sindh Assembly to President Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon was a witness. He advised the government to accept the resignation, otherwise he would climb the table of the assembly speaker and get it accepted.
He said he was disappointed with the verdict of the Supreme Court in the suo motu case on Karachi killings. He said the government would not send a reference against any party to the apex court on the basis of his disclosures.
However, if the government at all decided to send a reference, he said, it would be presented through the fake doctorate degree-holder, Babar Awan. “Let the chief justice summon me as I want to submit more facts before him and my disclosures should be taken seriously.”
The former minister said the Amn Committee has come into being only three years ago and he was prepared to own all crimes allegedly committed by it during this period.
But he asked if Altaf Hussain would also accept the responsibility for all the heinous crimes, including kidnappings, target killings, etc., allegedly committed by the MQM since its inception 24 years ago.
He said Benazir Bhutto was impressed by Imran Khan when he took up a case against the MQM in a British court.
Dr Mirza challenged Altaf Hussain to return to Karachi and said he would talk to him face to face at Nine Zero. “I am not a coward to flee from Karachi. I am a son of the soil, my family lives here and will continue to do so as this city is ours.”
He said: “Karachi has become a hub of automatic and sophisticated weapons, but who is buying these weapons being smuggled into the city.”
He gave a clean chit to the Jamaat-i-Islami and said it was not involved in extortion because during his tenure as home minister no such case had come to light against the party.
Levelling serious allegations of corruption against his former PPP colleagues in the government who had become millionaires since holding offices, he said he was under tremendous pressure for hiding cases of their corruption.
Dr Mirza extended an apology to the nation for spending three-and-a-half-years with those `thieves` and vowed to provide evidence of corruption of the government to the judiciary and the army.
“I will continue to collect evidences of corruption and appear before the media once a week or a fortnight to expose corrupt elements,” he added.
The former minister also said that the existing PPP was not the one founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or led by Benazir Bhutto.
He pledged to work to revive the People’s Party of Shaheed Bhuttos.
He criticised Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and accused him of being involved in corruption and said he (Wasan) wanted the posting of SHOs of his own choice in Karachi which sparked an argument with Additional Inspector General of Police Saud Mirza.
He recalled that during his tenure as home minister of Sindh he had gone to London with evidences against Altaf Hussain, but Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK didn’t allow him to present them before a court.
“Now I will take three suitcases full of evidences of wrongdoings of the MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain to London to file a case against him,” Dr Mirza said.
Waving what he called ‘documentary proofs’, he also spoke about alleged corruption of MQM and PPP ministers and the Sindh governor. Without naming anyone, he said he was receiving indirect threats but he feared no-one except God.
Dr Mirza said he would not indulge in any conspiracy to break Pakistan.
He criticised the policy of reconciliation of President Asif Ali Zardari and said the PPP’s agreement with the MQM to bring it back to the government was an unholy alliance which would not be acceptable to the people of Pakistan.
He also shared with newsmen what he termed documentary proof of alleged corruption of a provincial minister belonging to the MQM.
He appealed to the army and judges to take notice of corruption of the present regime.
Dr Mirza said if he became the home minister again he would issue another at least 0.5 million arms licences.
� { s a �F� س� elapsed into the old state.The researcher recommended recreational activities for children inside IDP camps so that they could remain busy making fun away from the terrorism related news.
Meanwhile, Dr. Irum Irshaad, provincial president of Pakistan Association of Clinical Psychologists and associate professor at Psychology Department of University of Peshawar, said over the last 10 years, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was on the rise among the people, especially women and children, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas adjacent to conflict-hit tribal areas.
She told Dawn on Monday that data of patients with PTSD in the province had yet not been collected but research at Jalozai Camp for internally displaced persons and her patients showed that the disorder was on the rise.
Dr Irum said terrorism and insecurity had a negative bearing on the minds of the people, especially women and children.
“Women face gender discrimination when it comes to treatment for psychological problems,” she said, adding that more men had enrolled for treatment at her private clinic in Hayatabad than women.
She said women were generally considered to be `just acting ill` in the gender-biased society ignoring treatment for serious mental illnesses, adding that economic pressure and displacement due to conflict was coming out in the form of behavioural changes.
“Economic burden and breaking up of joint family system are common causes of psychological problems,” Dr Irum said, adding that increase in intolerance in society was an outcome of such problems.
According to her, local families, which have accommodated displaced relatives from Waziristan, Bajaur, Swat and other restive areas, have shown behavioural changes.
“Hospitality, which is considered a value in Pakhtun society, is stretched with the people feeling stressed due to economic burden and insecurity,” she said.
Dr Irum said provincial government should invest in improving mental health facilities and rehabilitation centres in the province since such facilities were almost equal to none.
“One mental Hospital that is adjacent to Peshawar Prison is in such a condition that one remains depressed for days after visiting it,” she said, adding that observance of human rights and tolerance can help attend to psychological problems.
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