Worker’s killing in Punjab: Altaf suspends MQM’s Rabita Committee

Says if killing of MQM workers not stopped, no Punjab official will be able to enter Sindh.

KARACHI:

Angered by its lukewarm response over the killing of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker in Sialkot, MQM chief Altaf Hussain suspended the party’s policy-making Rabita Committee. At the same time, he warned the Punjab government that its officials would not be able to enter Sindh if it failed to stop the killing of MQM activists.

Altaf suspended MQM’s Rabita Committee in Karachi and London Wednesday morning for its failure to “appropriately react to the killing of MQM’s district vice president for Sialkot, Bao Muhammad Anwar”.

“I’m angry at the Rabita Committee as their response to the murder of Bao Muhammad Anwar was poor. They issued a press release, a few tickers ran on TVs and they all went to sleep. Well, they can keep on sleeping now,” Altaf told hundreds of workers at the party’s headquarters, Nine Zero.

Addressing the former Rabita Committee members who were not allowed to attend the speech, the MQM chief said he was disappointed in them. “I do not need this Rabita Committee, but instead I need those brave people who won’t sell people’s lands,” he said.

Altaf also announced an interim Rabita Committee to be headed by Qamar Mansoor – previously the head of the party’s central information committee – as interim in-charge in Pakistan. In London, Arshad Hussain will look after the matters of the Rabita Committee for the time being, he said. The interim Rabita Committee also includes Ghazi Salauddin, Aslam Afridi and Dr Nusrat.

Altaf burst into tears while talking about the sacrifices of the ‘martyred’ party workers and his own life in self-exile, and sought from MQM’s sector in-charges names of educated and honest people for a new Rabita Committee.

He also hit out at the government for its failure to protect the lives of its citizens. “If the series of killings does not come to a halt in Punjab, then no ministers or officials from Punjab will be able to enter Sindh,” he warned.

The MQM leader said 400 party workers and supporters had been killed over the last two years. “People on television have only been talking about the slain Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf worker Haq Nawaz for the last 48 hours but no one speaks about the killing of MQM workers,” he said.

After the dissolution of the Rabita Committee, its 35 members – which included deputy convener and MNA Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, MNA Farooq Sattar and senior leaders Haider Abbas Rizvi, Amir Khan, Nasreen Jalil – have all been suspended.

The suspended Rabita Committee was formed after the May 2013 general elections. It was suspended in July for a few hours after its members failed to perform duties at Nine Zero; however, it was reinstated within a few hours after the members apologised.

Following Altaf Hussain’s address, the MQM workers carrying black flags and banners, gathered outside the Karachi Press Club to protest against the killing of Bao Muhammad Anwar. Protest demonstrations and sit-ins were also staged in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Tando Allahyar, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Sanghar, Jamshoro and other districts.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2014.