Overview
- Jamaat-e-Islami set a February 14 sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly to demand empowered local government and a judicial commission led by a senior High Court judge on the Gul Plaza blaze.
- Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told JI leader Hafiz Naeem to take his assembly oath or vacate his seat and said authorities will act against sit-ins that block major roads.
- The chief minister said the government has written to the judiciary on a probe’s terms of reference and announced compensation of Rs10 million per deceased victim and Rs500,000 per shopkeeper, with officials reporting about 80 fatalities.
- Ahead of possible blockages, local authorities in Karachi detained about 180 people under the Maintenance of Public Order law, signaling tighter protest controls.
- Separately, officials reported security operations in Balochistan with 177 militants killed over recent days, alongside Section 144 orders and continued suspensions of mobile internet and some rail services.