KARACHI: Former Senior Minister of Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza said on Friday that MQM Quaid Altaf Hussain and his cronies were anti-state and wanted to dismember Pakistan. Addressing his supporters here, he said the president and the prime minister did not like the MQM.
He said Governor Ishratul Ebad and Farooq Sattar had been extorting money from industrialists to feed Altaf Hussain, who was busy merrymaking in London. He said Ebad had been imposed on the people of Sindh by Pervez Musharraf. He said Sindh’s poor masses demand Ebad’s removal. He appealed to Sindhis not to spare Interior Minister Rehman Malik if they spot him.
Earlier, talking to reporters at the Mirza Farmhouse in Golarchi, Mirza said five terrorists would be killed against the murder of any innocent citizen, be he a Haqqiqi member, Sindhi, Punjabi or Baloch. He said he considered every Punjabi, Mohajir, Pathan or Baloch in Sindh as a Sindhi and he was fighting for their cause.
Mirza asked Altaf Hussain to address people over the phone if he was not in jail. **He said he had given proof against the MQM to ISI and Army, not India.
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Imtiaz Ali adds from Karachi: Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza on Friday said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik used to mislead President and Prime Minister that if relations deteriorated with the MQM in case of action against alleged targeted killers in the metropolis, the Army Chief and ISI would dismiss the PPP-led government.
Addressing a rally in Lyari on Friday night after his arrival from rain-devastated home district, Badin, Mirza said the Army would not remain silent if killings did not stop in the city. He said corps commander Karachi and the Army chief were patriots and if the Army comes, they would perform the task of domestic security and would return back to the barracks. He said he had more secrets that he could reveal at another time that might trigger a political tsunami. “Shouldn’t the killing of innocent people in Karachi come to an end?” he asked the Army chief.
He alleged Rehman Malik would continue to stage a drama till the break-up of the country. He claimed he got arrested the alleged target killers of the MQM in this capacity of Sindh home minister but Malik got them released.
He said Malik has gone to the Mardan House on Friday to hoodwink the ANP Sindh chief, Shahi Syed. Mirza also obliquely criticized incumbent Sindh home minister, Manzoor Wasan, by saying that he (Mirza) did not dream when he was in the government.
He said he issued arms licences to around 300,000 people in Sindh during the last three years not for pleasure shooting on weddings but for their protection. Earlier, Mirza vowed to resist what he called unnecessary interference by the Centre in Sindh affairs as he reached in the city from his rain-devastated home district, Badin.
Several thousands of people welcomed the former senior vice president of PPP Sindh when he arrived at Ghaghar Phatak, Malir, on Friday afternoon on his onward journey to address a rally in Lyari, the PPP stronghold in the metropolis.
He arrived in the city in a rally for the first time after levelling serious allegations against MQM chief Altaf Hussain and Interior Minister Rehman Malik a few days ago at Karachi Press Club. Surprisingly, activists of the PPP-led government’s coalition party in the Centre and Sindh, the Awami National Party (ANP), as well as the Mohajir Qaumi Movement alias Haqqiqi (Afaq group) were among those who received him in the city. The PPP workers from Lyari and Malir and Sindhi nationalist parties were also among the crowd.
Addressing the people and later talking to the media, Zulfiqar Mirza, husband of Speaker National Assembly, Dr. Fehmida Mirza, said he would continue his struggle against Rehman Malik, Senator Babar Awan and Governor Sindh Dr . Ishrat-ul-Ebad as they were interfering in Sindh’s affairs, and demanded their removal.
He lashed out at Rehman Malik by saying that he was staying in Karachi to ‘mortgage’ Sindh. Mirza also criticized the PPP-led government’s reconciliation policy towards the MQM and PML-Q by saying that such reconciliation should be made with the masses not the killers.
He said he had abandoned parliamentary politics and come on the roads to seek the legitimate rights of Sindh. He called for the people of Sindh to unite and understand their enemies. However, he clarified that he did not believe in ethnicity and he considered all the people as Pakistanis and Muslims.
Mirza urged the youths to play their role for strengthening the country and supporting the Army. He also asked the masses to strengthen the hands of PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and President Asif Ali Zardari as their politics was aimed at the survival of Pakistan .
He complained that his friends in the PPP were distancing themselves from him as they no more attend his phone calls. He believed that some in the Army and judiciary supported his stance about the Karachi killings.
Earlier, addressing a press conference at his home district in Badin, Zulfiqar Mirza became emotional when he said he had a friendship with President Asif Ali Zardari for 42 years but regretted that he (Zardari) had given preference to Rehman Malik over his long-lasting friendship. He also made the starting disclosure there that he had issued 0.3 million arms licences in the city. Mirza admitted that he had made ‘compromises’ when he was Sindh home minister and had become a ‘coward’ as he did not reveal documentary evidence against the activities of Rehman Malik and the MQM.
When Zulfiqar Mirza left Badin in a caravan of vehicles, he was received by crowds at Golarchi, Jati, Sujawal and Thatta where he addressed rallies. Witnesses said that his caravan of vehicles was spread over two kilometers when he arrived at Ghaghar Phatak from Dhabeji. But Mirza’s criticism was met with a cool response from the interior minister and Sindh home minister.
Rehman Malik during his visit to Central Jail Karachi said he did not want to respond to the criticism of Zulfiqar Mirza against him. Similarly, Manzoor Hussain Wasan ostensibly ridiculed Mirza when he asked as to why he (Mirza) did not utter these things when he was Sindh home minister for three years. Talking to the media at Hala after offering Fateha over the death of PML-N Sindh leader, Makhdoom Shahnawaz, Wassan said Mirza’s talk now appeared to be ‘absurd.’
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