By popular demand: Altaf retracts resignation call

Claims some elements do not wish to see him in politics

KARACHI:

In the wake of a flood of requests, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain withdrew his decision of resigning from the party on Thursday. Yet he made it clear that if any other party worker is killed, MQM would hold a strike the very next day.

Hours earlier, Altaf had announced that he would part ways with the MQM in an effort to bring the extrajudicial killings of his party workers to an end. He claimed that some army generals, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and politicians did not want to see him in politics.

“I ask workers to permit me to quit. I want peace.  I do not want to see bloodshed,” said Altaf during a telephonic address at the MQM Headquarters Nine Zero on Thursday, declaring that his speech at the foundation of the Hyderabad University on Friday would be his last address.

However, after the three-hour-long address, the party workers became emotional and started shouting slogans: “We want Altaf” and “Altaf Altaf”, soon after the MQM chief withdrew his decision and told his followers to be jubilant.

This is not the first time that the MQM leader has threatened to quit the party, and then withdrawn the threat. On Thursday, the party observed a shutter-down strike across Sindh and a day of mourning in the country, after the body of its missing unit in-charge, Sohail Ahmed, was found from Mowach Goth, on the outskirt of Karachi, on Wednesday.

Altaf held the Sindh chief minister responsible for the killing and 36 extrajudicial killings of his workers, alleging that Ahmed was kidnapped and killed by the police in Karachi.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the MQM chief is said to be unhappy with the Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad over his ‘silent’ stance on the workers’ killings.

“He [Ishratul Ebad] does not have power to do anything. If he can do one thing, it is to resign,” said Altaf.

While appreciating Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar for his ‘brave’ act of resigning, he said that he salutes the Punjab governor for the step, adding that if he can’t give justice to anyone, what he should, he be serving as the governor.

Altaf advised the army to not think of the MQM or its leader as enemies of the state. “The army and its supporters say that the MQM is acceptable to them minus Altaf Hussain,” he claimed.

While lashing out at his former ally, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, Altaf insisted that he always stood by him in his difficult times, but Zardari under his home minister Zulfiqar Mirza formed the Lyari Aman Committee, whose aim was to kill MQM workers and the Mohajirs.

Moreover, he also alleged that the ISI, Rangers and PPP have an agreement to kill MQM workers, claiming that every party has a militant wing but no one talks about it.

The MQM chief also said that a monitoring committee was promised by the federal government to oversee the targeted operation in Karachi but it has yet to be formed.

He claimed that the establishment had been hatching conspiracy against the party, wishing to break it up and blaming it for murders of Pathans and Punjabis.


Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.