Re: Minister Zulfiqar mirza resigns! And makes serious allegations on Altaf Hussain
It is now accepted that Dr.Mirza was telling the truth about the MQM.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\09\12\story_12-9-2011_pg7_21
Altaf fails MQM more than Mirza
LAHORE: Instead of putting any defence to the allegations levelled by former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, now widely believed as correct and well substantiated, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain has brought the party to the witness box for failing in utilising his final trump card of going to public rather unsuccessfully applying the erstwhile favourable yet powerful media against the party and himself.
The MQM leader’s press conference, one of the longest surpassing the record breaking Zulfiqar Mirza’s press conference only three weeks before have raised more questions than answers.
The varying degree of appeasement of the state institutions with some getting veiled warnings from the MQM chief had in fact helped many to believe that Zulfiqar Mirza’s allegations need to be taken seriously, if there is any desire to see a permanent peace in Karachi, the mini-Pakistan both economically and ethnically.
The MQM chief in his belated response to Zulfiqar Mirza’s outburst for his alleged abetment in a conspiracy to disintegrate the country addresses the military establishment without segregating army generals on the degree of their patriotism. It is not far from now when the MQM chief used to call ‘patriotic’ army generals (Can there be any general who is unpatriotic in Altaf Hussain’s scheme of things?), to play their role.
The MQM leader didn’t care to raise this demand even when his party was part of the PPP-led coalition government; it quit and joined again in a record-breaking time in the country’s political history.
The office of the president was also being spared by the MQM chief in one of his most controversial press conferences understandably because the prevalent political situation suggests that President Asif Ali Zardari may holds the key, after the GHQ, to let the MQM off the hook.
The MQM chief showed a little courtesy to the country’s supreme judiciary mindful of the so far held proceedings on the suo motu notice on Karachi situation wherein most of the people so far appeared before the five-member bench had directly and indirectly pointed finger at the MQM for lawlessness in Karachi.
The MQM finds the dice may have been loaded following an in camera briefing to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry-led bench by the Inter Services Intelligence. The MQM was reportedly in the dock if the proceedings, contradicted by none, were anything to go by.
The May 12, 2007 events, one of the biggest skeleton in MQM’s cupboard haunts the party more than any thing on two accounts. Firstly, the matter carries so much weight since the MQM was in power in Sindh and hand in gloves with former president Pervez Musharraf at the time of the happening of the gory event. Secondly due to the subsequent restoration of the judges sacked by Musharraf with the help of mass movement during which the May 12 was staged in Karachi with party’s home minister was on record that the Sindh government ordered the putting up of containers at various city roads that helped in carrying out one of the most terrorising acts against a mass movement in country political history.
The small fries like Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), keeping in view their political strength in the Sindh province, were made to face the major brunt of the MQM chief on the day he chose to set the course of the party’s future political priorities.
Since Altaf’s diatribe against the ANP and PML-N, the two parties had been coming hard on the party with the former seeking disbandment of the Karachi-based party while the latter adding fuel to the fire that gravely boiling the political temperature against one of the most controversial party, the MQM, since its inception under the patronage of the military junta of 1980s.
The MQM chief’s decision of going to public through the media may have been an attempt to satisfy the largely disturbed and confused ranks and file of the party in consequence of Zulfiqar Mirza’s diatribe, the exercise as of now appeared to have proved counter-productive keeping in view the general political debate on the media as well in the political circles. One of the major losses that Altaf Hussain’s press conference has caused to the party is in fact allowing the powerful media to relax its nervous after staying for so long a hostage to the party’s visible and not so invisible threats. With exception to those who were there to defy the strong arm tactics of the MQM, the perception of dire consequences was so deep rooted that many reportedly fell short of gathering enough courage to take the party head-on, particularly in Karachi.
It was in this backdrop that the media was the ultimate target of the MQM before and after its chief’s press conference. However, the kind of resilience the media practioners showed on the face of many veiled and not so veiled threats was the major loss to the party as a consequence of his appearing on the media with fanfare that met an anti-climax to the calculation of those who had been keenly observing the party in and out of Karachi for decades.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s press conference has, in fact, dashed all hopes of those who were seeking a political solution to the Karachi situation and not so convinced about asking the judiciary to call the final shot.
The nature of allegations that Zulfiqar Mirza has levelled by reportedly putting both his life and politics at stake and the not so convincing response from the bunch he accused therein has ultimately brought MQM and its key leaders in the witness box before a powerful judiciary. With the option of seeking a political solution to a problem of chronic administrative failure is far from sight now, the judicial forum appeared to have well placed to come out with a final verdict with a lot good in stock for those posing trust in it and not so good for those hurling direct and indirect threats to it.
I’m not interested in his political future whether it is sunk or BRIGHT, bcoz it is not going to make any difference in lives of poor Sindhi ppl.
