‘Muttahida Qaumi Movement has been targeted by conspiracies of other parties’

For decades, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has been blamed for conspiracies hatched by other political parties, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Rabita Committee deputy convener and Sindh information technology minister Raza Haroon said at a press conference on Friday.

“The MQM was accused of the murder of former governor Hakim Muhammed Saeed. Later, the intelligence officer revealed that someone else was involved in Saeed’s murder,” said Haroon, who added that MQM has been targeted in many incidents since 1992, including the Jinnah Pur “conspiracy”.

IGP Rana Maqbool had also been appointed by Nawaz Sharif’s government in 1998 to take action against the MQM, Haroon alleged.

He claimed that the Awami National Party’s (ANP) Majid Kashmiri had also been caught by the police for his involvement in the Lyari gang war, in which the MQM has been falsely implicated for many years.

Haroon said that the “conspiracy” against the MQM was also brought to the surface after confessions from the former chief of intelligence, Brigadier Imtiaz, former corps commander General Naseer Akhter and Colonel Muhammed Iqbal Khan.

He added that the MQM has apprised President Zardari of the situation and that the latter had assured the MQM that all these “ambiguities”, including the land mafia issue, will be resolved.

Sindh health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Shoaib Bokhari, Ashfaq Mangi and Kanwar Khalid Yunus were also present at the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2010.