KARACHI: National Assembly Interior Affairs Standing Committee Chairman Abdul Qadir Patel on Saturday resigned as the chairman and his National Assembly seat after the murder of his coordinator and a former councilor. Meanwhile, Pakistan People's Party postponed its scheduled “Peace Rally' against target killings in view of the incident. According to details, Eidi Amin Khaskheli – Patel's coordinator – and Abdul Ghani Wachani – a former PPP union councilor – were returning home on a motorcycle early on Saturday when two unidentified men on motorcycles fired at them near the Saeedabad Police Training Centre. The culprits managed to escape despite security being on high alert.
SHO Shaukat Zaman said, “We shifted the victims to hospital and later handed their bodies to their families.'
Following the incident, PPP activists took to the streets and blocked the road by burning tyres. They chanted slogans against some political parties and demanded the government bring the culprits to justice. Some activists also blamed the party's provincial leadership for failure to protect its workers.
After hearing about the incident, Patel rushed to the Civil Hospital and tendered his resignation publicly, saying he could not work after the murder of his colleagues, but would continue working as a party activist.