Crackdown on PAT workers: MQM urges govt to stop ‘political victimisation’

Farooq Sattar says govt is harassing Dr Qadri’s followers.

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar said on Sunday that the so-called democratic government itself was a threat to the integrity of Pakistan which has become a ‘police-state’.

The MQM has always supported democracy unconditionally but not a tyrannical democracy with a feudal mentality, Sattar told a news conference at the Khursheed Begum Secretariat where Rabita Committee members Babar Ghauri, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Nisar Panhwar and Gul Faraz Khan were also present.

The government used its machinery to suppress the voice of people and trampled democratic values, he said, referring to the June 17 deadly police crackdown at the Central Secretariat of Minhajul Quran International in Lahore.

Sattar said Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers were being detained and harassed. “Such brutal acts against members of any party are political victimization,” he said, adding that preventing workers from welcoming their leader was unreasonable and intolerable.

Sattar said political activities were the beauty of a democratic society and any attempt to create any obstacle could result in anti-democratic consequences. “The government should stop raiding the houses of PAT workers and supporters and also end their harassment,” he demanded.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2014.