Re: Sindh Should Be Divided As Well
People who still believe there was something like Jinnahpur need to pull their heads out of sand now. It’s about time!!!
http://archives.dawn.com/archives/29684
Jinnahpur debunked
August 26, 2009
THE ghosts of Pakistans violent political past continue to haunt the country. Extraordinary statements by a former IB chief and a former corps commander of Karachi have triggered a bitter row between the MQM and PML-N this week. First, some history. During Nawaz Sharifs first tenure as prime minister, Sindh was facing a grave law and order crisis. Banditry had reached epidemic levels in the interior of the province and the cities in the south were unsettled. At the time, the MQM and the Nawaz Sharif-led alliance, the IJI, were in government together, but the MQM was blamed for fomenting the crisis and the army was called in to deal with the issue. As is the nature of such matters, few things are known for certain. It does seem though that the PML and the MQM were sucked into a conflict where other players, such as President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and army chief Asif Nawaz, had other agendas and axes to grind. The upshot was that the MQM was weakened as a party and its reputation sullied by the allegation that it wanted a separate homeland, the so-called Jinnahpur, which stretched from Karachi to Thatta. Now, Brig Imtiaz Ahmed (retd), formerly close to Mr Sharif and rumoured to have had his recent overtures to the PML-N rebuffed, along with **Gen Naseer Akhtar (retd) has claimed that the Jinnahpur maps were fake and the separatist claim baseless. The MQM has leapt on the admissions and gone into overdrive to proclaim its bona fides as a Pakistani party that was maliciously slandered by its opponents.
**Puzzling as the timing of the retired army officials statements is and unseemly as the MQM-PML-N spat is, Altaf Hussain has perhaps made the most pertinent suggestion the need for a truth and reconciliation commission. In truth, few political parties in this country can claim to have clean hands when it comes to dealing with one another. So perhaps, as they collectively steer the countrys latest transition to democracy, what the parties need most is to demonstrate that they can bury the past and genuinely work with one another towards institutional stability. A truth and reconciliation committee would be an important first step in that direction.
http://archives.dawn.com/archives/35615
KARACHI, Aug 24 Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to constitute a “truth and reconciliation commission” in the light of **disclosures made by Lt-Gen (retd) Naseer Akhtar, a former corps commander of Karachi, and Brig Imtiaz Ahmed, a former director-general of the Intelligence Bureau, that the MQM had nothing to do with the “Jinnahpur conspiracy”.
**Speaking at a press conference through remote video link from London at the Jinnah Ground on Monday, Mr Hussain said that at a talk show aired on a private television channel, the former Karachi corps commander and the former director-general of the intelligence bureau had made it clear that the allegation of the recovery of maps of Jinnahpur from the offices of the MQM in June 1992 was baseless and that the documents were fake.
He recalled that Brig Asif Haroon had called journalists from Punjab after the launch of the operation to brief them about the “Jinnahpur conspiracy”, showing them maps of Jinnahpur and other documents found in the offices of MQM.
“But on Sunday, Lt-Gen (retd) Naseer Akhtar and Brig (retd) Imtiaz made it clear that it was a false allegation and an attempt to divide the nation,” the MQM chief added.
**On the basis of the alleged maps of Jinnahpur, action was ordered against the MQM, the Muttahida chief recalled, alleging that 15,000 workers were killed during the operation and its aftermath. **
Instead of keep spreading the lies to try to win a discussion, those who support Babar the Coward and Butcher of Karachi (May his soul rest in peace), people need to **pray for the countless lives **lost due to that conspiracy.
**Shame on (includes everyone) who is blinded because of ethinic hatred. **
