Pakistan

MQM rejects minus-Altaf fate

MQM has been facing such allegations since 1992, says Nadeem Nusrat while urging establishment to talk to Altaf

Our Correspondent March 04, 2016

Farooq Sattar. PHOTO: ZAFAR ASLAM /EXPRESS

KARACHI:

While rejecting all allegations against Altaf Hussain, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s convenor Nadeem Nusrat has advised the establishment to let go of its politics of dividing the party and instead talk to the party chief.

The MQM leadership came out with a calm response to Mustafa Kamal’s explosive news conference on Thursday, claiming the party had been bearing the same accusations for decades.

Altaf working for RAW, says Kamal

“This move by the establishment will also backfire,” said Nusrat while addressing a press conference from London at the MQM headquarters Nine-Zero, where all the lawmakers and office-bearers had gathered.

“These allegations are not new. Since 1992, we have been facing them. In every election, we have been getting the mandate and votes despite all these allegations. The mandate alone is the defence of Altaf,” he said while requesting the people not to take law in their hands in reaction to Kamal’s speech.

“Is it the fault of Altaf if he brought a person picking up the phone to the assembly, made him a senator and a nazim also?” Nusrat questioned, referring to Kamal, who is known to have worked as a telephone operator at Nine-Zero before he became an MQM lawmaker.

Responding to Kamal’s accusations, Dr Farooq Sattar claimed the only aim of the press conference was to pave the way for the minus-Altaf formula for MQM. “But this would not be successful,” he said.
“No one can separate Altaf from us. He is the solution to all our problems.”

He added these allegations were levelled against the party by the Jamaat-e-Islami 30 years ago. “Look where the Jamaat is standing today,” he said while referring to the diminishing vote bank of the religious party, which once dominated Karachi’s political corridors.

Altaf Hussain is the only solution to our problems: MQM

About the allegations of MQM workers getting guerrilla training from India, Dr Sattar said that during the 90s, some men had sought refuge in India and got training or were forced to get training. “The party had then and there distanced itself from them,” he added.

The senior MQM leader said the mandate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2013 elections was talked about a lot but nobody spoke about the MQM’s mandate in the 2015 local government elections.

Thursday’s press conference was the first time since the departure of Kamal and Anees Qaimkhani in 2013 that the two publicly announced their departure from the party. Later on, the MQM also announced cancelling the basic party membership of the two men.

At Nine-Zero, MQM’s senior deputy convener Amir Khan said the house gifted to Kamal by the party years ago had still not been returned.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2016.

COMMENTS (8)

S.R.H. Hashmi | 8 years ago | Reply he confident tone in which Peoples Party leader Manzoor Wassan was talking, emphasizing that Peoples Party was strong and will get even stronger, has perhaps come about as a result of some sort of assurance given at top level that the party would be spared any further significant action. As for Sharif’s and Punjab, anchorpersons were enthusiastically announcing that anti-corruption operation was imminent, and would start soon. However, considering the fact that Punjab is supposed to be over sixty percent of Pakistan, and has its presence in some of the really powerful sectors in even greater proportions, no serious thinker thought that action in Punjab was possible. With contacts been made by NAB with some of the Punjab officials, the rumours about action starting in Punjab got further strengthened. However, with Nawaz Sharif almost rebuking the corruption-busters, even the slight ripples formed on the surface have all died down , and it is quiet all around. The manner in which Nawaz Sharif talked about the agencies, would have been taken in some properly run country as criminal interference in the working of a government department, raising a popular demand for his resignation, even impeachment. Of course, nothing like that happened here. And that unfortunately leaves only MQM as a popular target and punching bag for just about every one, a target which they can attack without any fear of serious consequences for self, deriving as much fun as they want out of it. Obviously, the targets in our beloved country are selected, not on the basis of actionable causes, but more on whom one can attack and get away with. Lot of work under the Nation Action Plan still remains undone, but leaving everything else, MQM is being chased single-mindedly. It is really surprising that at a time when the country is facing so many threats at various fronts, the powerful sectors have become unduly obsessed with MQM, to the exclusion of some really serious problems that the country is facing. No wonder we are not taken seriously around the world, which is in quite a contrast to the high regard that we hold ourselves in. Karachi

NHA | 8 years ago | Reply @Sadaf: But what MQM did to Karachi city is also unique. It is ruined and made into a killing field. Investment has fled to Bangladesh and North of Pakistan and Karachites are left with fighting among themselves . @Napier Mole