KARACHI, June 28: Reacting to an appeal made by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain to review the policy of giving strike calls frequently, MQM lawmakers said in a statement issued on Friday that there would be no need to lodge a protest if the chief minister played his due role and stopped killings of innocent people, menace of extortion and terrorism.

Muttahida MPAs appealed to the chief minister “to review and reconsider his policy of having a soft corner for gang war, terrorists, and extortion mafia involved in the killings of innocent citizens and supporting them”.

They said that office-bearers, workers and even elected representatives of the MQM were being targeted even today, during the present PPP government, on a pattern similar to what occurred in the PPP’s previous tenure.

They said that MQM chief Altaf Hussain had been expressing his concern and voice over the menace of terrorism, extortion and targeted killings continuously because these were not only harming Karachi’s economy but also damaging Pakistan. “But the provincial government is paying no heed to our appeals and taking no action. The irony of this whole tragedy is that instead of providing protection to the innocent citizens from the criminal elements of the gang war, the CM is criticising our mourning and protests,” they said in the joint statement.