'MQM misunderstood my speech'

MQM boycotts Sindh Assembly session over Mirza's remarks; Mirza says he is willing to work with MQM.

KARACHI:

Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza said on Monday that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had misunderstood his speech and that he was willing to work with the party.

Mirza was speaking about the reaction of the MQM regarding his statement on the People's Aman Committee and their decision to boycott the day's Sindh Assembly session.

Mirza said it was part of his domain if innocent citizens had any problems with the police and he said that he was hopeful the MQM would support him on his decision. He also invited the MQM to bring forward any such cases and said that he was ready to review them.

The MQM earlier today slammed Mirza's statement and said the party was also considering parting ways with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and will be meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari in this regard in a few days.

In a joint meeting of the MQM's Coordination Committee in Karachi and London, MQM leaders condemned Mirza's support for the Peoples Aman Committee under the PPP's umbrella.

The MQM said the People's Aman Committee comprises of criminals and accused Mirza of supporting them.

Speaking to the media in Karachi, MQM leader Raza Haroon said his party cannot continue on with the PPP under the current situation.

Haroon said that the party will also boycott the sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate when they are held.

Updated from print edition (below)

Mirza ‘owns Lyari Amn Committee’, MQM peeved

After months of denying links with Lyari’s Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) at government level, Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza said on Sunday that the committee was a “sub-organisation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).”

“Considering the sacrifices rendered by its members, I today announce that the PAC is an affiliate organisation of the PPP,” he said at a gathering in Malir organised to commemorate the seventh death anniversary of the slain PPP activist, former MPA Abdullah Murad Baloch. He said that the committee comprised founding members of the PPP, adding: “They are the followers of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

Mirza, who is also the senior vice-president of the PPP in Sindh, rebuffed the notion that PAC members were extortionists, kidnappers and criminals.

“If all PAC members are criminals, then Zulfiqar Mirza should be considered one of them too,” the home minister said, adding that if “mistakes have been made, they have been made “from Liaquatabad to Lyari”.

“If wrong cases have been registered, we will review them and dispose them of on merit.”

Meanwhile, he called Malir a PPP fort.

Interestingly, arrangements for the function were made by members of the Peoples Amn Committee and armed persons were seen wearing black commando jackets at the gathering.

MQM’s response

Just after the PPP leader made the remarks, some members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Rabita Committee urged their leadership to quit the coalition in Sindh.

A handout said that members of the Rabita Committee, including Muhammad Anwar, Anees Advocate and Muhammad Ashfaque, condemned Mirza’s statement and said that patronisation of “criminal elements” was unacceptable.

MQM has repeatedly accused the PAC – notorious  for its alleged role in the  Lyari gang wars – to be “deeply involved in extortion rackets”.

Although MQM has consistently conveyed to the PPP that there were certain ministers in the Sindh cabinet who “have been backing criminals of the so-called Peoples Amn Committee”, the government has always refuted such claims.

They said that now that Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had owned the so-called Peoples Amn Committee, it “is clear that he is the patron-in-chief of the PAC terrorists. The people of Sindh have the right to question Mirza’s eligibility to hold his post”.

MQM members said that it was an “established fact that PAC terrorists were involved in the Shershah market massacre. Mirza’s statement was self-explanatory: he is involved in the bloodshed, besides sharing the ransom from kidnappings”.

PPP reaction

After the event, Mirza told journalists: “The MQM has interpreted my speech in a wrong manner. I did not speak in favour of criminals: I just supported innocent people who, despite being PAC activists, are loyal to the PPP manifesto. I will request my friends to (carefully) listen to my speech again before giving a reaction.”

He said the police had been arresting criminals, irrespective of their political affiliation, but the courts kept releasing them.

Talking to The Express Tribune, PPP Sindh secretary-general Taj Haider said that Mirza was not wrong to support innocent people of the Peoples Aman Committee. The MQM had taken his speech “out of context” and they should not get “emotional”, he said.

“We are democratic coalition partners and, therefore, we should persevere,” he added.

An insider in MQM’s hierarchy told The Express Tribune that federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik had unsuccessfully tried to contact with MQM chief Altaf Hussein in a bid to defuse the tension in the wake of Mirza’s remarks. However, Malik discussed the situation with Anwar and Anees in London.

Sources said that Malik had assured MQM leaders that he would brief President Asif Ali Zardari about their stance.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.