Pakistan

Invites PML-Q to moot: JUI-F chief says Qatar talks meant to end war

MQM announces all-out support for Dr Tahirul Qadri.

Our Correspondent February 25, 2013

MQMs Senator Nasreen Jaleel, MPA Raza Haroon and Rabita Committee member Saif Yar Khan met Minhajul Quran chief Tahirul Qadri in Lahore on Sunday. PHOTO: INP

LAHORE:

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that his dialogue with the Afghan Taliban was in progress and would continue whether or not the government approves his move.

Asserting that it was his responsibility to pull the nation out of this war on terror, the JUI-F chief said that his visit to Doha, Qatar, was to bring the country and the region out of the 12 years of terror which had paralysed the people of Khyber-Pakhtunkwa (K-P).

On Sunday night, Rehman called on senior leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) at their residence and invited them to participate in his party’s All Parties Conference (APC) – an invitation the PML-Q accepted.

Rehman later told reporters that the government approval had nothing to do with his talks with the militant outfit and negotiations with the Afghan Taliban would continue during its tenure, maybe during the elections and possibly after the new government comes into power. The aim, he said, was to end the war.

Asked if his party was willing to enter into an alliance with the Q-league, he replied that both parties have ideological differences but PML-Q’s president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that both parties have an “alliance at heart”.

MQM-Dr Tahirul Qadri contact

A Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) delegation led by Raza Haroon on Sunday called on Minhajul Quran International (MQI) head Dr Tahirul Qadri at his residence in Model Town.

The MQM leader later told reporters that their meeting was to give a message to the people that MQM and Dr Qadri stood jointly on the electoral reforms issue.

Haroon said that his party will support Dr Qadri at each and every level.

He said that MQM supported Dr Qadri’s demand to ban fake degree holders from contesting the upcoming general election.

MQM has also demanded from Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to submit his degrees in the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Regarding Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s statement that the ongoing political war between MQM and the Pakistan Peoples Party might be fake, the MQM leader replied that the Sharif brothers should think before giving statements of this kind.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.