[Dawn] A tense government had the Senate adjourned amid a debate on flood havoc on Monday to mourn the assassination of an MQM provincial legislator in Karachi, which it called part of a "trap to destabilise Pakistan". Interior Minister Rehman Malik immediately pointed fingers at the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi groups for the shooting down of Sindh assembly member Raza Haider and appealed to government allies, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP), for patience and calm after an ANP senator said his party members in Karachi were being attacked in retaliation.
"This is a trap to destabilise Pakistan," an apparently agitated minister said as he informed the house of the Karachi shooting and called for a suspension of the debate on floods until Tuesday as a mark of mourning, to which both the opposition and treasury benches agreed.
Mr Malik described the incident as one of "a formula and a larger scheme against Pakistan" and said "it is time to get together to fight" it.
"Our enemies want to burn Karachi," he said, and added: "If Karachi is destabilised, then the whole country will be destablised."
He did not specify these "enemies" but said he had been warning about the designs of sectarian Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkari-i-Jhangvi groups for the past one year though the government would keep its options open to track down the culprits.
After ANP's parliamentary leader in the house, Haji Mohammad Adeel, intervened to say his party members and offices were being attacked in Karachi right now, Mr Malik appealed to both the ANP and MQM not to be driven by sentiments and let authorities take the necessary action. "We are awake and we are taking action. We will leave no stone unturned to take action."
Most of a total of 11 senators from the opposition and government-allied parties who spoke earlier on three adjournment motions on the flood situation expressed dissatisfaction with the government's relief effort, with the hardest comments coming from Haji Adeel who said his home province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's relief "expectation from the centre and other provinces had not been met" and, in a comment that could raise many eyebrows, asked: "Should our people then look to somewhere else?"
Even Science and Technology Minister Mohammad Azam Swati of JUI was not satisfied with the government's performance after a visit to three of the flood-hit districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and proposed diversion of funds budgeted for "non-productive programmes" to flood relief.
PML-N parliamentary leader Ishaq Dar and party colleague Pervez Rashid both called for a better government mobilisation for relief from floods that now threaten other provinces as well, but used the debate to urge President Asif Ali Zarari to put off his visit to Britain later this week to protest at British Prime Minister David Cameron's remarks in India last week about alleged role of Pakistani intelligence in promoting "export" of terror. Islamabad rejects the allegations.
Hafiz Rashid Ahmed from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) introduced a private constitution amendment bill, seeking to fix a time-limit to abolish interest-based banking in Pakistan. The bill was referred to the standing committee concerned by PPP's Khatu Mal Jeewan, who was chairing the proceedings at the time.