KARACHI: In a move that warrants clarification, police picked up and detained more than half a dozen elected local body representatives of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) from their respective areas without giving any reason on Sunday evening and released them in the early hours of Monday without any explanation.

The police remained tight-lipped and did not issue any official statement about the action, while JI accused law enforcement agencies of `kidnapping` its elected representatives and demanded that the Sindh chief minister and the home minister explain what crime the elected representatives had committed to warrant their detention.

Addressing a press conference at the party`s headquarters Idara Noor-i-Haq, JI Karachi chief Monem Zafar Khan accused the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government of using the police to harass JPs elected local government representatives and said the party would continue its struggle for the rights of Karachi despite `government pressure and police excesses`.

He said some JI representatives were detained from Korangi Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, Jamshed Town and Landhi Town.

He added that the detention of JI union committee chairmen and other elected local representatives from different areaswithoutanylegaljustificationamounted to the `worst form of fascism and police brutality`.

`Let the Sindh chief minister and home minister explain what crime the elected local government representatives committed to warrant their detention,` he said, questioning the legality of picking up elected representatives from their homes and keeping them in police custody without informing their families or party colleagues.

Mr Khan said that if serving the city and improving it for its residents is the act for which their party members are being harassed, then they would not abandon their efforts to improve civic facilities and promotedevelopment in the nine towns under its administration. The party would also continue its campaign against the petroleum levy and `excessive taxes,` he added.

Accompanied by the local government representatives who had been detained, the JI leader said at the press conference that the party`s elected members had been picked up from around six locations across the city and repeatedly shifted from one place to another. Their families and colleagues were kept in the dark about their whereabouts, he alleged.

He said building model parks, improving educational institutions and providing better civic facilities were part of the party`s mission, adding that no pressure could stop it from carrying out development work.

`Is building roads, constructing parks, improving educational institutions and gifting eight buses to Karachi University a crime? If this is a crime, JI will continue to commit it,` he said.

The JI leader said the party was also introducing an education card for the young people of Karachi to help improve their future. He maintained that JI`s elected representatives were `working day and night to serve the public with honesty and dedication`.

Calling for an empowered local government system across the country, he demanded that local bodies be given constitutional protection as well as financial and administrative powers under Article 140-A of the Constitution.

He accused the PPP government of failing to transfer powers and resources to the grassroots level despite the 18th Constitutional Amendment. He also said the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award had not been implemented for 18 years, leaving local governments without the resources needed to address public problems.

`Karachi`s education system, local government institutions and civic culture had suffered serious damage over the past several decades`, he said.

He added that the PPP, Muttahida Q aumi MovementPakistan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had all failed to resolve the city`s problems.