PTI, MQM engage in tit-for-tat politics

KARACHI: After an onslaught of cases against MQM chief Altaf Hussain since Monday night, the MQM has also started submitting FIR applications against PTI chief Imran Khan.

These applications have been submitted at various police stations across Karachi, said MQM spokesperson Wasay Jalil. The party will lodge cases against Khan for his disrespectful and critical remarks against the armed forces, he told The Express Tribune. He was referring to some statement about ‘generals’ that Khan made inside a container during the sit-in in Islamabad.

The party also plans to lodge cases against federal defence minister Khawaja Asif for his “anti-state speeches”.

While both MQM and PTI leaders have submitted applications at Darakshan Police station for the registration of FIRs against one another, the police have yet to convert them into FIRs.

Lawmakers of both the parties also went to the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday to submit resolutions against each other. Speaking to the media outside the assembly, PTI MNA Dr Arif Alvi said that the provincial and federal governments are deliberately ignoring Hussain’s hate speeches against national institutions.

Mocking the relationship between the MQM and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Alvi told the media not to “fall for their act” and that the “MQM and PPP fight during the day and are best friends by nightfall.”

Meanwhile, MQM lawmakers also submitted a resolution in the assembly against the PTI chief for his words against the national institutions. They demanded the federal government immediately lodge a case against Khan, under Article 6, and cancel his National Assembly membership.

PTI Karachi president Ali Zaidi submitted a letter to the British High Commission on Wednesday morning, condemning Altaf Hussain’s ‘hate speech’ against the Pakistan Army and the Rangers.

In this letter, Zaidi stated that he wants to condemn hate speeches made from British soil by one of their nationals. “We strongly demand that the British government take immediate action to stop these hate speeches by Hussain, and initiate criminal proceedings against him.”

In response to this letter, the MQM also submitted a counter response against PTI’s Imran Khan at the British High Commission on Tuesday. Party leader Dr Farooq Sattar told The Express Tribune that they have challenged Khan on moral grounds.

“We have asked the British authorities how Khan can demand legal action against Hussain when he himself never appeared in courts in the US when he faced the paternity case filed against him,” he said. They have also spoken against Khan’s remarks about the army generals, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2015.