Amateurish politics: MQM, ANP trade barbs yet again
Both parties want the other banned for being a ‘terrorist organisation’.
KARACHI:
In a new round of allegations, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has condemned the Awami National Party’s demand for a ban on the MQM as a ‘terrorist organisation’, while the ANP said it wasn’t alone in making such a demand.
In a joint statement by MQM coordination committee members Yousuf Shahwani (Balochistan) and Gulfaraz Khattak (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Lahore Zone In-charge Shaheen Gilani and Ghotki Zone In-charge Nooruddin Zangi said that ANP itself has been conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan with cooperation from India.
(Read: Altaf has Pashtun blood on his hands: ANP)
They said that ANP leaders should be ashamed of themselves before levelling allegations against MQM because they had ‘sold out the teachings of Bacha Khan for US dollars’.
Demanding an immediate ban on the ANP, they said its leaders should be arrested and punished publicly so that members from other parties do not even think about betraying Pakistan at the behest of foreign masters.
They said that the MQM has the support of millions of people so those who are demanding the imposition of a ban on it are living in a fool’s paradise.
Meanwhile, ANP has said that it is not alone in its demand, which is what all ‘well-wishers’ of Pakistan want.
“Reports presented before the Supreme Court by intelligence agencies prove that MQM is a terrorist organisation,” a spokesperson of ANP’s Sindh chapter said on Sunday, in reaction to a MQM Rabita Committee statement. “MQM should face the facts being presented by [former Sindh home minister] Zulfiqar Mirza against them.”
He said that the MQM had staged ‘political killings’ to get back into the government. He alleged that MQM’s armed men had killed Urdu-speaking women and elders at the Karachi Press Club on March 12, 2008, because they were against the militant politics of [MQM chief] Altaf Hussain.
He said that a Canadian court has declared MQM a terrorist organisation and Hussain and MQM’s political activity is banned in Canada. “MQM’s politics is based on bodies and ethnicities and they become a part of every government only to meet the expenses of Altaf Hussain,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2011.
In a new round of allegations, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has condemned the Awami National Party’s demand for a ban on the MQM as a ‘terrorist organisation’, while the ANP said it wasn’t alone in making such a demand.
In a joint statement by MQM coordination committee members Yousuf Shahwani (Balochistan) and Gulfaraz Khattak (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Lahore Zone In-charge Shaheen Gilani and Ghotki Zone In-charge Nooruddin Zangi said that ANP itself has been conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan with cooperation from India.
(Read: Altaf has Pashtun blood on his hands: ANP)
They said that ANP leaders should be ashamed of themselves before levelling allegations against MQM because they had ‘sold out the teachings of Bacha Khan for US dollars’.
Demanding an immediate ban on the ANP, they said its leaders should be arrested and punished publicly so that members from other parties do not even think about betraying Pakistan at the behest of foreign masters.
They said that the MQM has the support of millions of people so those who are demanding the imposition of a ban on it are living in a fool’s paradise.
Meanwhile, ANP has said that it is not alone in its demand, which is what all ‘well-wishers’ of Pakistan want.
“Reports presented before the Supreme Court by intelligence agencies prove that MQM is a terrorist organisation,” a spokesperson of ANP’s Sindh chapter said on Sunday, in reaction to a MQM Rabita Committee statement. “MQM should face the facts being presented by [former Sindh home minister] Zulfiqar Mirza against them.”
He said that the MQM had staged ‘political killings’ to get back into the government. He alleged that MQM’s armed men had killed Urdu-speaking women and elders at the Karachi Press Club on March 12, 2008, because they were against the militant politics of [MQM chief] Altaf Hussain.
He said that a Canadian court has declared MQM a terrorist organisation and Hussain and MQM’s political activity is banned in Canada. “MQM’s politics is based on bodies and ethnicities and they become a part of every government only to meet the expenses of Altaf Hussain,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2011.