Zulfiqar Mirza’s tirade may appear to be directed at the MQM and Rehman Malik, but it is also an indictment of Asif Zardari and the PPP. Here is a person who has been the interior minister of Sindh and privy to multiple dimensions of the security situation in the province accusing the ruling party’s coalition partner of treason and involvement in murder, extortion and loot. In its support, he presents documents and a passionate exhortation to other people who have inside information case to come forth and state the truth.
In response, and strangely, the MQM came out with an unconvincing rejoinder which conveniently ignored the substance of the long list of accusations and tried to make do with worthless polemics, while Zulfiqar Mirza’s own party, the PPP, opted to ignore the entire repertoire of his accusatory dossier and proceeded quickly with accepting his resignation. It also decided to serve him with a show-cause notice with regard to his conduct which has been construed to be against the party’s ‘reconciliatory’ policy.
The well-orchestrated effort that appears to be underway to rubbish Zulfiqar Mirza’s serious charge-sheet against those entrusted with the responsibility of running the country and their political partners is condemnable in the strongest possible terms. At the same time, there is also a need for other state institutions, those mentioned in the charge-sheet as well as those not mentioned, to coordinate to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation of the charges. These institutions include, but may not be limited to, the judiciary and the ISI/army.
It is palpably clear that the PPP and its leadership cannot be exonerated from the charges levelled by one of its leading leaders. The fact that Zulfiqar Mirza had taken the president into confidence about the nature and extent of involvement of the MQM and its leadership, most notably Altaf Hussain, in criminal incidents resulting in multiple deaths in Karachi and his subsequent lack of action is clear proof of the complicity of the part. At the least, the PPP should have ordered an immediate enquiry into the allegations to ascertain their veracity. Since that is not the course adopted, it makes it mandatory for other state institutions to act forthwith to take clinical stock of the shocking revelations and apportion guilt.
Fortunately, the judiciary is already in session at its registry in Karachi hearing the suo motu notice of the deteriorating situation in the city. It should take immediate steps to expand the scope of the hearing and ask ZulfiqarMirza to present his case that he has also requested for. He should also be asked to furnish the purported proofs that he showed to the media in support of his allegations against the MQM and its leader Altaf Hussain. The requests by numerous interested groups to be allowed to become parties to the case should also be accepted. The collective information secured from all these sources should constitute the basis for the apex court to proceed further to string the guilty. Concurrently, the Supreme Court should also lift the lid from the long outstanding cases including the NRO review petition and the Swiss bank accounts which have now remained pending for over a year – an inordinately long time that has contributed to further perpetuating the undemocratic and criminal undertakings of the ruling mafias.
As to the army, it should come out of the shadow of the sinful act of having contributed to framing and implementing the NRO and start playing its constitutional role in aid of other state institutions. For too long now, it has hibernated while the corrupt traditional political mafias have denuded the country of its sovereignty and self-respect and compromised its claim to independence and exercise of its free will. Much has been compromised. Zulfiqar Mirza’s grave revelations may only be the tip of the iceberg. Much more may need to be unearthed. It is the prime responsibility of the intelligence and security agencies to undertake forthwith the minimal exercise to extend constitutional support to all efforts that are geared to unearthing the conspiracies to damage Pakistan and its national, regional and international stakes.
The democracy experiment is fast heading towards its predicted and natural demise. It is already on life-support system and no effort should be made to prolong the agony that a country and its hapless people have been mercilessly subjected to at the hands of an artificially fabricated leadership wholesomely dedicated to corruption and crime. It must go the way it came: through a clinical operation aimed at ridding the country of internal strife and violence and restoring its prestige and stature in the international comity of nations. Nothing less than that would be sufficient to drive the country out of the unending turbulent times that it has been gravely subjected to at the hands of domestic saboteurs and foreign masters.
But, no institution or a combination of institutions would be able to deliver unless the people are effectively sensitised to the gravity of the situation. Thereafter, they would have to go a step further: come out in support of their demand to free their country of the tentacles of the corrupt and criminal mafias who have driven it to the brink of destruction. Not only it has to be retrieved from the edge of the precipice; it has to be put back on track to re-defining its destiny in an assertive and dignified manner. Pakistan needs its people to come out and save it.
The writer is a political analyst and a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached at [email protected]
There is no denying a fact that after Imran Khan's bold stance against Altaf Hussain and his MQM, Zulfikar Mirza has come much more forecefully with incontrovertible evidences against fascist Altaf Hussain. Mr Imran Khan had done his spade work in 2002 in the aftermath of 12th May carnage and handed over a comprehensive dossier to the Scotland Yard. Mr Zulfikar Mirza has risked his life to speak without mincing words about thug Altaf. Dr Zulfikar Mirza must be given due credit for that and the SC should take notice of serious allegation levelled with facts and figures. I must remind the readers that a court in Canada had declared MQM a terrorist outfit.
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