MQM seeks to ‘clear misunderstandings’ with military

Praises army’s outstanding role against extremism, terrorism

KARACHI/HYDERABAD:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) seeks to remove all misunderstandings between the party and the military by reposing its stance for ‘Pakistan’s betterment and strengthening’.

Addressing a news conference in Karachi on Sunday, MQM leader Farooq Sattar claimed that in the past few years, misunderstandings had developed or were caused to develop by some elements between his party and the country’s armed forces.



The MQM wants to clear all of them by reposing its stance for the betterment and strengthening of the country, he added. “Irrespective of what these misconceptions were based on, the MQM will leave no stone unturned for clearing the air again and reviving the spirit of 1947, when the country had gained independence.”



Dr Sattar said the country needed a national agenda, whereby all the political parties, the military and the people must work together.

Former MQM minister Rauf Siddiqui told the media that his party had found the military’s role outstanding in eliminating extremism and terrorism in North Waziristan under Operation Zarb-e-Azb. “The MQM pays tributes to the martyrs who lay down their lives fighting terrorism.”

Meanwhile, MQM’s Hyderabad chapter has allegedly exposed a mega land scam in the city “involving over 20,000 acres of government land being handed over to private builders and developers”.

MQM MNA Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui revealed this during a news conference that was convened to expose the ‘big guns’ behind the ‘dodgy land deal’.



He claimed that the National Accountability Bureau was already investigating the ‘scam’ and two officials of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) had also been arrested.

But, he stressed, the powerful people behind the ‘scam’ needed to be exposed. “The Sindh chief minister, chief secretary, member Board of Revenue, member Land Utilisation and other relevant officials should also come under investigation.”

Siddiqui claimed that the HDA had given away some 2,800 acres in Kohsar, Latifabad taluka, to a certain real estate developer. “The land was meant for developing a low-cost housing scheme for the poor.”

Pointing out ‘another illegality’, he said: “The HDA itself is yet to acquire the 2,800 acres from the revenue department after making the due payment.”



The MQM went on to claim that the Sindh government, through the HDA, had also signed a deal with the same builder for another 20,800 acres in the same area.

“[After its lease expires next year] the land will be transferred back to the Sindh government, which decided to use the HDA as a tool to retransfer it to [the developer],” said Siddiqui.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th,  2016.