Karachi: Federal interior minister Chaudhy Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday said that the Karachi operation was expedited in recent weeks entailing a marked improvement in the law and order situation.

Talking to journalists in the garrison town of Wah Cantt, the interior minister said the operation would continue with the same pace and spirit.

Khan said the operation was launched after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), demanded for it on August 28, 2013. All the other parties were also consulted before the start of the operation in September that year, he said.

He further said his government was ready to address any grievances if the MQM and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had some reservations on the ongoing operation.

Khan said that his ministry was closely monitoring the operation.

Thousands of criminals, outlaws, militants and target killers were arrested and grilled by the law enforcement agencies since the start of the operation.

Killings, extortion and other major crimes came down in this mega city but the two key political parties, the MQM and the PPP, complained that their leaders and activists were being targeted under the guise of the operation against the criminals.

Currently, the police are holding former PPP minister Dr Asim Hussain in remand, after he had remained in captivity with the paramilitary Rangers for more than three months.

He was arrested on the charges of facilitating militants’ medical treatment, taking bribes in awarding government contracts and nepotism as a minister for petroleum and natural resources.

Meanwhile a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court remanded senior officials of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) as well as Karachi Development Authrity (KDA) into two weeks custody of the NAB investigators.

The remanded suspects were Shoaib Warsi, the serving managing director of SSGC and Zohair Siddiqui, the former MD of the company, run under the ministry of petroleum and natural resources.

Besides, the court also handed two directors, an additional director and a builder to the NAB investigators for 14-day remand.