Sounds like MQM is nervous for some reason. I wonder why?
http://paktribune.com/news/Altaf-never-worked-against-integrity-of-Pakistan-MQM-243245.html
KARACHI: Declaring that MQM chief Altaf Husain has never worked against the solidarity and integrity of Pakistan, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement categorically rejected Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s allegations that the party is involved in target killings in Karachi, and termed the allegations an attempt to influence the proceedings of the Supreme Court that is holding suo moto hearings to establish the perpetrators of violence in the city.
Two days after the former Sindh home minister and senior PPP leader called the MQM a terrorist party, MQM MPA Faisal Sabzwari called a press conference at the Khursheed Memorial secretariat in Azizabad on Tuesday and said that the accusations leveled against the Muttahida reflected “a sick mentality.”
He said the MQM wanted indiscriminate action against criminal elements in Karachi, and demanded that no leniency should be shown to anyone involved in criminal offences.
Sabzwari said while Mirza was home minister, more than 500 MQM workers were killed but not a single culprit was arrested. He said Mirza should be ashamed of making such baseless accusations against the Muttahida.
“We respect the co-chairman of the PPP and President Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP leadership and the mandate of their party from the bottom of our heart and we hope that they will foil the negative activities of extremist elements like Zulfiqar Mirza who want to harm the democratic process by driving a wedge between the PPP and the MQM, create disturbance in Sindh and create feud between the voters of both the parties,” Sabzwari said. “The MQM will continue to work for peace and stability in Sindh, particularly Karachi, under the guiding leadership of Altaf Hussain.”
He further said the MQM was ready to face any kind of accusations and allegations in the courts. “If Mirza has any kind of evidence, he should bring it to court and the MQM will face charges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he added.
Sabzwari strongly condemned the press conference by Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and said it was called to endanger the solidarity and integrity of Pakistan and MQM would never allow such a move to succeed since Pakistan was achieved after immense sacrifices of the MQM’s forefathers. He said the monstrous allegation made by Zulfiqar Mirza about an alleged US plot to break Pakistan was as much laughable as it was grave.
“The mental condition of Zulfiqar Mirza can easily be judged from this. Zulfiqar Mirza has tried to increase his diminutive stature by pointing fingers at the leader of the third largest political party who is honoured by millions of people,” Sabzwari said. “It is highly ridiculous that Altaf Hussain asked Dr Farooq Sattar, Governor Sind Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad and other senior leaders of the MQM to go out of the room, as Mirza says, and held secret talks with him. This would mean that the people who have been working with Altaf Hussain for many years were not worthy of his trust, and those who were meeting him for the first time were so reliable that he could hold highly confidential talks with them.”
Sabzwari called Mirza’s allegations white lies and said there was not a speck of reality in them and the MQM condemned them in the strongest possible terms.
He said people know very well that the fabricated, appalling and outrageous allegations of Jinnahpur was leveled against the MQM in the past as well in an attempt to malign it as an anti-state political party. He said self-made maps were also produced before the people but a time came when the conspirators came on the media and accepted before the nation that the Jinnahpur allegation was a drama and that no maps were discovered.
Sabzwari said Altaf Hussain was a great and a patriotic leader of the country and the MQM was the political party of the descendants of the founders of Pakistan, who sacrificed millions of lives in the struggle for the country. “They left their homes, belongings and memories of their ancestors for their cherished homeland,” Sabzwari said.
He said everyone in Pakistan knows that it was Zulfiqar Mirza who talked about breaking Pakistan in his speech before the media. Zulfiqar Mirza has only tried to mislead the international community, armed forces of Pakistan, national defence institutions and patriotic people by making these unfounded and repugnant allegations.
He further said the conversation imputed to Altaf Hussain by Zulfiqar Mirza regarding the killing of the Pakhtuns were unabashed lies, and a figment of the imagination of his devious mind. Sabzwari said the purpose of this allegation was to create hatred and animosity in the minds of the Pakhtuns against Altaf Hussain and to bring them in confrontation with the MQM.
He said the MQM wanted to assure the Pakhtuns beyond a shadow of doubt that Altaf Hussain and the MQM had never been against the Pakhtuns. “We consider them as our brothers and hold their life, property and dignity as sacred as we hold ours,” Sabzwari contended. “He said MQM never had any dispute with the Pakhtuns and there will never be a feud with the Pakhtuns in the future as well.”
Sabzwari said Zulfiqar Mirza was trying to pitch the Pakhtuns and the Mohajirs against each other by fomenting violence and protecting the miscreants. He said the MQM wanted to inform the people that a large number of Pakhtuns from Karachi, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah and other parts of the country were part of the MQM, and Gulfaraz Khan Khattak, a Pakhtun, was a member of the Co-ordination Committee that is the policy-making body of the MQM.
Sabzwari further said there was never a dispute between the Baloch and the Mohajirs in Karachi before Zulfiqar Mirza become the Home Minister. “Zulfiqar Mirza conspired to provoke violence between the Baloch through a nefarious conspiracy,” he said, adding that the Baloch are old citizens of Karachi and they are our brothers. “No sooner had Zulfiqar Mirza become the Home Minister that incidents of kidnapping for ransom, extortion, robbery spiked in Karachi. Any trader and shopkeeper who dared to refuse ransom or extortion money in the areas of Saddar, Burns Road, Kharadar, Mithadar, Jodia Bazar, Tower and the other adjoining areas was killed in broad daylight.”
Sabzwari said the massacre of the shopkeepers in Sher Shah Kabari Market is a glaring example of how several shopkeepers were put to death and injured by indiscriminate firing when they refused to give extortion money to the criminal elements patronised by Zulfiqar Mirza. “The accused terrorists of the People’s Amn Committee who were nominated in the case were turned over to the police in the office of Zulfiqar Mirza,” he said.
He said the shopkeepers who were the plaintiffs in the case were threatened with murder if they identified the killers. The business community at large kept on raising a voice against his open terrorism and thuggery but the incidents did not stop because Zulfiqar Mirza was avowedly patronising the criminals.
“He is still supporting the criminals and the terrorists which is the basic reason of the lawlessness in Karachi. Every businessman, industrialists, shopkeeper and even small children know who supports the extortion mafia in Karachi,” Sabzwari said.
“Zulfiqar Mirza has made tall claims about peace in Karachi. Had he any concern with bringing peace in Karachi, he would have supported indiscriminating and across the board action against terrorists and criminal elements in Karachi, but he fiercely opposed action against the dissolved Peoples Amn Committee in every government meeting. He started making baseless allegations not only against the MQM but also the government, Federal Interior Minister, Governor Sindh and PPP leaders Agha Siraj Durrani and Babar Awan as soon as the Rangers moved against terrorists of the gang war in Lyari, finished no-go areas, arrested criminals, recovered weapons and discovered torture cells.”
Sabzwari further said Zulfiqar Mirza held this press conference in a bid to stop action against criminal elements and to influence the suo motu action taken by the Supreme Court against bloodshed, mayhem and extortion mafia in Karachi.
Referring to the reports of the Joint Investigation Teams (JITs), he said the MQM maintained that unless the guilt was established in a court of law, the accused should be considered innocent.
He said hundreds of cases were made against the MQM in order to defame it and harm its credibility in the public. “From stealing the cap of a policeman to Jinnahpur and from the murder of a common man to Hakim Saeed, false cases were registered against the MQM workers but they have been honourably discharged from all cases through courts,” Sabwari said. “Zulfiqar Mirza should prove the allegations in the courts instead of showing them on the media. He should let the courts do their work and not become the judge and the jailer himself.”
He said the MQM wanted action against criminals elements in Karachi to proceed indiscriminately and that no leniency should be shown to anyone involved in criminal offences.
He said, “We once again appeal to the workers, sympathisers, and the general public not to get provoked by these inflammatory and absurd allegations.”
When asked why the Sindh police chief had given the names of MQM workers in targeted killings, he said the MQM believed that action against criminals be taken across the board.
When asked if this press conference was called with the consent of President Asif Ali Zardari, Sabzwari paused and then said he was not aware of this. When asked why the MQM took two days to hold a press conference or showed no reaction, he said MQM was a peace loving party and never wanted any kind of disturbance in the city since Eid was very near and the party did not want to cause disturbance in the city at this point.
To a question Sabzwari said the MQM had gone to the registrar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and extended all out cooperation in the suo moto case over the targeted killings in Karachi.
