Only dedicated cadre can curb corruption: MQM chief

Altaf says before the creation of Pakistan, feudal supported Unionist parties.

LAHORE: The country needs honest, dedicated and educated people to resolve basic public problems as only they can eradicate corruption from the country, chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain said on Sunday.

He was addressing members of the MQM’s Lahore zonal committee and district bodies at the party’s zonal office.

Castigating feudal lords, who now claimed to be patriots, Altaf Hussain said that they were the biggest opponents of the Pakistan Movement.

He said these landlords kept supporting the Unionist Party during the Pakistan Movement, and when they realised that no one can stop Pakistan from coming into being, they joined the Muslim League and hijacked it.

Deputy Convener of MQM’s Rabita Committee Dr Farooq Sattar, Muhammad Raza Haroon, Waseem Aftab, Iftikhar Akber Randhawa, Saif Yar Khan and members of the party’s women’s wing also attended the function.

He said hatred was fanned against people who sacrificed their lives and property in Pakistan movement and “landlords and waderas termed these very same people, and their offspring, traitors, and employing (negative) propaganda, they kept the people, especially in Punjab, away from the MQM”.

Hussain thanked God and said that negative propaganda against the MQM was fading and the youth were now looking towards the MQM. “They now believe that only the well-educated and middle-class leadership can steer the country out of crisis.”

Urging party workers to work honestly and serve the masses, the MQM chief also advised them to stay focussed on the party’s ideology. He said soon Lahore would be an MQM stronghold.

Hussain urged people of Punjab to participate in the public gathering of his party which would be organised on April 10 in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2011.