MQM supremo slams PPP-led Sindh government, Police for extorting money from traders, shopkeepers.
LONDON. June 4, 2021:
Sindh government is misusing Sindh Police for extorting millions of rupees from the traders of Karachi and Hyderabad in the guide of COVID-19 SOPs violations. This is sheer injustice and tyranny.
Altaf Hussain, the MQM supremo said and strongly condemned the PPP-led provincial government.
In a statement, Hussain said in order to defeat COVID-19 pandemic, preventive measures are unavoidable but the PPP-led Sindh government has started misusing this situation and has imposed an irrational schedule of lockdown under which traders have been crushed. Police action is immediately initiated against the shopkeepers and used Police force to close markets, and traders asked to deposit millions of rupees on daily basis for running their businesses. The PPP-led Sindh government is extorting huge money from the traders and shopkeepers daily. The shopkeepers who are refusing to pay are being tortured and detained in lockups by Police.
He said that looting, cruelty and barbarism are rampant in Mohajir dominated areas of Karachi, while shops and other businesses in other non-Mohajir areas allowed to keep open.
Mr. Hussain said that if the government really wanted to save the people from the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive and protective SOPs and lockdowns would have been imposed all over Sindh and implemented equally.
He said that the leaders of trade unions had been criticising MQM on strikes on extrajudicial killings and had been supporting the oppressors and accused MQM for collecting charity which the oppressors and the traders used to term as extortion but today they themselves have been forced to take a strike-like action against the cruel measures of the PPP's racist provincial government.
Addressing the small traders and shopkeepers of Karachi and Hyderabad, Hussain said that staying silent on the oppression is tantamount to reinforcing the oppressors and prolonging their tyranny. Enduring atrocities being inflicted by Police and PPP-led provincial government would keep going on with full swing unless you the traders and shopkeepers dare to refuse them to give money in extortion. Finally, you will have to rise against this tyranny, and then this will stop.
The supremo of MQM Hussain demanded the government to stop this tyranny against the small traders and shopkeepers of Karachi and Hyderabad.
He further demanded that the utility bills and taxes should be waived in Karachi and Hyderabad and these cities should be declared calamity-hit and tax-free zones.
End--