Pointing fingers: 'MQM factions staging a drama'

Party is tarnishing the image of the Muhajir community, believes Mustafa Kamal

KARACHI: Adding to the ongoing row between the London and Pakistan factions of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Chairperson Mustafa Kamal accused both factions of 'staging a drama'.

Addressing a press conference at the PSP headquarters, Pakistan House, Kamal said that Farooq Sattar, the head of MQM-Pakistan, indirectly benefitted MQM Founder Altaf Hussain after claiming to break off ties with him after last year's August 22 incident.

The split in the MQM occurred on August 23, a day after authorities launched a country-wide crackdown against the party for an incendiary speech of its founder.



"If even today [Altaf] is hurling profanity [at the country and its institutions], it is because of those who have yet retained the MQM in the face of Sattar," said Kamal. "If Sattar didn't know about Altaf's connection with RAW, why doesn't he ask Farogh Naseem, who fought these cases?" Kamal questioned.

He bashed MQM-London group spearhead Nadeem Nusrat for pretending to be a loyalist of the party's founder and fooling the people. "Nusrat was dismissed from the party a year after he joined. At that time, he and his wife had made insulting remarks about Altaf," he said.

He asked the MQM founder's close aides, Muhammad Anwar and Tariq Mir, to speak the truth because it will save generations of the Muhajir community, which the party claims to represent. "Altaf is bent upon tarnishing the image of the Muhajir community," he said.
"[Altaf] was not even bearable when he claimed himself to be Quaid-e-Tehreek and now he is a self-proclaimed Baba-e-Qaum," Kamal commented. "In exile, when he couldn't use Pakistan's name, he started exploiting it in the name of Muhajirs."



Kamal also criticised the Centre-ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz and province-ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), accusing both of misgovernance, nepotism, and corruption. "It's upon the people now to decide what they want. Will they silently keep burying their children or stand up against the corrupt rulers?" he questioned.

"I ask Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa to abort Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad because it was ineffective due to government policies," he requested.

Kamal also called out the PPP leaders for being the biggest producers of terrorists in the country through their policies in Sindh. "No matter how many terrorists the army kills, these politicians will keep reproducing them."

He expressed his condolence with the victims of the twin blasts in Parachinar and condemned the police's alleged torture of Jamshed Dasti, the independent lawmaker from NA-178 Muzaffargarh III.