ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani yesterday intervened to lift the ban placed on Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan to enter Karachi, in a bid to ensure greater political harmony at a time when the country was facing serious challenges.
Earlier, authorities stopped Imran traveling to the port city of Karachi yesterday because of fear his trip could trigger violence in the commercial hub.
Gilani, who was in the port city, directed Sindh chief minister not to ban Imran from entering into the city or any part of the province, a statement from prime minister’s House said.
Last week, at least 27 people were killed in clashes in Karachi between rival ethnic-based factions.
“It’s shameful,” Imran told reporters in Lahore where authorities stopped him boarding a flight to Karachi. “Under what law can they stop a Pakistani citizen going to Karachi? Isn’t Karachi a city of Pakistan?” The violence in Pakistan’s biggest city resulted from tension between Mohajirs, the descendents of Urdu-speaking people who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, and ethnic Pashtuns from the northwest.
Imran, who heads his small party, is Pashtun. Tension in Karachi has been building as Mohajirs, who dominate the city’s administration, have become suspicious of a Pashtun community that has strong Islamist sympathies, following a surge in militancy in the northwest.
Imran said he had been hoping to take a message of peace to Karachi, home to more than 16 million including the largest concentration of Pashtuns outside the North West Frontier Province, where an insurgency rages.
“We’re trying to forge unity among all ethnic groups but Altaf Hussein considers Karachi his property and stopped us,” he said, referring to the chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that represents Mohajirs.
The MQM has been the dominant political force in Karachi for years. It is part of a provincial coalition government led by President Asif Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party.
