Afaq’s latest: If I am assassinated…
MQM-H chief says police not protecting people in his neighbourhood.
KARACHI:
Afaq Ahmed of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) says that if he is murdered or if any of his party workers are caught up in ‘terrorist attacks’, the FIR should be registered with the names of President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Additional Home Secretary Waseem Ahmed and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain.
Once again levelling allegations against the powers that be, Afaq Ahmed, fresh off a trip to Islamabad, says he is requesting the Supreme Court for a petition to be made out of his verbal appeal regarding his statement about who would be responsible if any harm were done to him or his party.
“The government has failed in its duty to protect the citizens of Karachi and without government approval no one can walk around armed openly,” said Ahmed while speaking to the media at his residence in Landhi No. 6 on Monday. Ahmed claims that over fifteen thousand people were murdered in Karachi during the eight years he spent in jail.
Taking about the MQM, Altaf Hussain and others by name, Ahmed also said that the judiciary has been selective in its prosecution of cases. He complained that the reopening of cases in relation to the National Reconciliation Ordinance against President Zardari is common, but that there are over 3,200 cases in Karachi that should be reopened, that nobody talks about.
“The de-weaponisation of this city is the only way to restore peace in Karachi. Do other parties have weapons? Yes, but they probably have them for defence because the government has failed to perform its duties,” said Ahmed. He says the government has to stop appeasing the MQM in Karachi and they need to stop playing with people’s lives just to win elections and keep their government.
Several people have been injured in clashes near Afaq Ahmed’s home over the past few days and Ahmed says that while the police and rangers have visited afterwards, nothing has been done. At least six of the lanes leading to Afaq Ahmed’s home have been blocked by police vans and an armoured personnel carrier is stationed directly outside his home.
Afaq Ahmed alleges that he hasn’t been able to conduct his political activities with the freedom that has been guaranteed by the constitution since his party is not a banned organisation. He says that the government machinery is part of this effort to restrict his efforts. Ahmed was in Islamabad to appear in front of the Supreme Court because of a petition he filed against ‘no-go’ areas which he says still exist in Karachi despite the Supreme Court’s orders.
On the issue of the threat to his life, Ahmed says that he been given offers to leave the country but he says he will never do that. “I owe a debt to this country. This country has given me respect and I owe this country and its people to stay here and fulfill my debt.”
Ahmed says that Mohajirs have become stigmatized because of Altaf Hussain’s “politics at the barrel of a gun” and that it is in Mohajir culture to turn the other cheek and to fight with the pen, not with the sword.
He says that parties in Karachi are using ethnicity and sectarianism as a platform for politics but these parties don’t represent the people they claim to.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2012.
Afaq Ahmed of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) says that if he is murdered or if any of his party workers are caught up in ‘terrorist attacks’, the FIR should be registered with the names of President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Additional Home Secretary Waseem Ahmed and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain.
Once again levelling allegations against the powers that be, Afaq Ahmed, fresh off a trip to Islamabad, says he is requesting the Supreme Court for a petition to be made out of his verbal appeal regarding his statement about who would be responsible if any harm were done to him or his party.
“The government has failed in its duty to protect the citizens of Karachi and without government approval no one can walk around armed openly,” said Ahmed while speaking to the media at his residence in Landhi No. 6 on Monday. Ahmed claims that over fifteen thousand people were murdered in Karachi during the eight years he spent in jail.
Taking about the MQM, Altaf Hussain and others by name, Ahmed also said that the judiciary has been selective in its prosecution of cases. He complained that the reopening of cases in relation to the National Reconciliation Ordinance against President Zardari is common, but that there are over 3,200 cases in Karachi that should be reopened, that nobody talks about.
“The de-weaponisation of this city is the only way to restore peace in Karachi. Do other parties have weapons? Yes, but they probably have them for defence because the government has failed to perform its duties,” said Ahmed. He says the government has to stop appeasing the MQM in Karachi and they need to stop playing with people’s lives just to win elections and keep their government.
Several people have been injured in clashes near Afaq Ahmed’s home over the past few days and Ahmed says that while the police and rangers have visited afterwards, nothing has been done. At least six of the lanes leading to Afaq Ahmed’s home have been blocked by police vans and an armoured personnel carrier is stationed directly outside his home.
Afaq Ahmed alleges that he hasn’t been able to conduct his political activities with the freedom that has been guaranteed by the constitution since his party is not a banned organisation. He says that the government machinery is part of this effort to restrict his efforts. Ahmed was in Islamabad to appear in front of the Supreme Court because of a petition he filed against ‘no-go’ areas which he says still exist in Karachi despite the Supreme Court’s orders.
On the issue of the threat to his life, Ahmed says that he been given offers to leave the country but he says he will never do that. “I owe a debt to this country. This country has given me respect and I owe this country and its people to stay here and fulfill my debt.”
Ahmed says that Mohajirs have become stigmatized because of Altaf Hussain’s “politics at the barrel of a gun” and that it is in Mohajir culture to turn the other cheek and to fight with the pen, not with the sword.
He says that parties in Karachi are using ethnicity and sectarianism as a platform for politics but these parties don’t represent the people they claim to.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2012.