KARACHI: A day after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called off its sit-in against `enforced disappearance and illegal arrest` of workers, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah received an MQM delegation on Monday and assured them that he would take every possible action to address their grievances.

On Sunday, the MQM took its protest demonstration to Chief Minister House from the Karachi Press Club and staged a sit-in at the PIDC traffic intersection demanding release of the `missing` persons.

They ended their protest after Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Khuhro assured them that the CM would meet and listen to their complaints.

MQM leader Amin-ul-Haq told Dawn thatan eight-member delegation of the party called on the CM at his official residence.

`The meeting was continuance of our meeting with Nisar Khuhro on Sunday night,` he added.

He said the meeting lasted for about 90 minutes during which the MQM delegation raised four main issues.

`We gave the CM a list of our 172 missing workers, who had been taken into custody by law enforcement agencies, and requested him to play his role in the recovery of these missing persons,` said Mr Haq, who was also a part of the delegation.

He said the second issue the delegation raised pertained to inhuman treatment of MQM workers in prisons. `We also demanded that raids and arrest of our workers in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas be stopped forthwith and our elected councillor from Mirpurkhas, FarooqDurrani, be recovered and released immediately.

The MQM leader said that the delegation also informed the CM about the situation in Malir, Landhi and Lines Area, where `Hagiqi terrorists` were harassing party workers.

`The CM assured us that appropriate actions would be taken on all issues relating to the Sindh government,` he said.

When asked that why the MQM did not raise any issue relating to civic conditions or discuss the elections of mayor, deputy mayor, etc, Mr Haq said the meeting was focused only on the issues the party raised during its two-day sit-in at the Karachi Press Club. `The matter of recovery of our missing persons is more urgent and important, he said.

A spokesman for the Sindh CM, Rashid Channa, assured the MQM delegation thattheir grievances would be addressed as per the law.

`We are political workers and respect the workers of other political parties,` the CM said, adding that his government would never allow anybody to harass the inmates.

Mr Channa said the CM informed the delegation that his government believed in coexistence and it never pursued a policy of victimisation.

He said the CM as well as the MQM delegation lauded the efforts of law enforcement agencies in restoring peace to the city.

Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan and MQM`s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Syed Sardar Ahmed represented the MQM, while the Sindh government was represente d by Mr Khuhro, Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah and others.