Admission of guilt: On ANP’s kudos for Shahi Syed reining in MQM, war of words erupts

Senator Ilyas Bilour’s words in TV show upset coalition partner.

KARACHI: Awami National Party’s Ilyas Bilour has landed in the bad books of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) after making statements on television on restricting the party in Karachi. The MQM has seized upon his words as an “admission of guilt” and has appealed to the Supreme Court chief justice to take notice of the statement the senator made.

The MQM will also be bringing this issue up in the Sindh Assembly’s next session, which is scheduled for Monday.

MQM MPA and deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Faisal Subzwari, made the appeal to the chief justice at a press conference at Lal Qila Ground on Friday. The clip of Bilour speaking about the MQM on the ARY News talk show Pakistan Tonight with Fahd Husain was aired before Subzwari spoke to a crowd of reporters and the families of MQM workers and supporters who have been killed in the violence in Karachi.

Bilour was being questioned by the talk show host on whether the ANP had nominated party leaders to the Senate on the basis of their family relationships with senior leaders. When asked about awarding a Senate ticket to ANP Karachi leader Shahi Syed - who is party chief Asfandyar Wali’s brother-in-law - Bilour said that Syed had made contributions for the party in the city. “Shahi Syed has been given a ticket because he is the only person who has brought the ANP into the limelight in Karachi,” Bilour said in Urdu. “You tell me, is there any other force today that has restricted the MQM other than the ANP? Is there any Sindhi, any landlord who can stand in front of a man like Shahi Syed?”

These words set off a slew of late-night meetings by the MQM’s Coordination Committees in Karachi and London on Thursday, leading to a press conference the next day.

“This statement by Ilyas Bilour means that they have tied the MQM’s hands and feet,” Subzwari said. “By killing the MQM’s people, they believe they have silenced and crippled them.” He said Senator Bilour’s statement proved that the ANP was responsible for the violence in Karachi.

Over 1,000 people were killed last year in targeted attacks. “Now, that Senator Ilyas Bilour has admitted on record to the killings of MQM workers and supporters, we appeal to Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take notice of the statement and bring those responsible for the bloodshed into the purvey of the law and punish them according to the law.”

Subzwari alleged that the ANP had failed in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province (where it leads the government) as a result of its wrongdoing and corruption and was invovled in violence in Karachi and the politics of hatred to keep itself alive. He asked other parties to condemn Bilour’s statement.

The MQM leader claimed that it was the party’s strategy of believing in peace that has restricted it. “We are peace-loving people, but we are also honourable.”

This is not the first time the ANP and MQM have been caught up in a war of words. The MQM has often blamed the ANP for the violence in Karachi. Amid these tough patches, the Sindh government coalition – consisting of the Pakistan Peoples Party, ANP and MQM - has often been sewed up by assurances from President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Subzwari did not offer insight into whether the MQM would continue to be a part of a coalition government which includes the ANP, but he said that statements like these “revealed” the ANP’s tactics.

The families of MQM supporters and workers who were killed in the violence in the city also spoke at the press conference, calling out for justice for their loved ones. A few impassioned ones even called for the ANP’s Shahi Syed to be hanged.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2012.