Mirza turns guns towards Zardari

Former Sindh interior minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza said in an interview with Geo TV’s Laikin talk show on Monday that if President Asif Ali Zardari was becoming an agent in the attempts to break up Pakistan, he should resign.
In a fiery tête-à-tête, Mirza accused Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) National Assembly Member (MNA) Babar Ghauri of being involved in the theft of NATO tankers full of arms and ammunition, and said the United States was guiding the MQM. He said Ghauri needed to be interrogated in order to save Pakistan. He said MQM MNAs had sophisticated and modern weapons and the party extorted Rs 5,000 out of every container or truck that left the Karachi port. He accused the MQM of extorting Rs 10 million to Rs 15 million out of the port every day.
Mirza said an operation should be conducted at MQM Headquarters 90 before Lyari, and questioned why terrorists were not flushed out of 90. He said the Lyari Amn Committee comprised innocent people who were just fighting to defend themselves. He said whenever action is taken in Lyari, he would be there “with a licenced weapon”. Referring to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Mirza said a traitor was the interior minister of the country, which was a mistake made by President Zardari. Mirza said he had called Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to inform him of his decision to resign, but the chief minister – whom he said was a “very slow man” – called him back an hour and a half later.
He said after contacting Shah, he had contacted Khursheed Shah, whom he called “the most able parliamentarian in the country”. He said Khursheed had told him not to make a hasty decision and had not taken him seriously. “All my life I have not been taken seriously,” said Mirza. He said further that Khursheed had relayed the matter to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who also told him to wait, but he could not wait any longer. “My only demand was that Rehman Malik be sent packing,” said Mirza. He had done right by friendship, honour and truth, he added. Talking about MQM’s talks with the government, Mirza said making a deal with the MQM was tantamount to selling out the country, and if the people wanted Pakistan to break up, it was up to them. “Even the clothes on my back have been given to me by Asif Zardari, he is the best of friends,” said Mirza. Later, Mirza told reporters at his residence in Karachi that he thought his party and the Sindh chief minister was involved in murders in Karachi because they had failed to stop the violence. He said Senator Babar Awan had told him that Rehman Malik was being removed and he was going to become the new interior minister. He said the president had said in a meeting that Khursheed Shah was also a candidate for Sindh chief minister.
COURT WAS DEAF: Speaking about the observation of the Supreme Court that “Mirza was silent for three years”, he said the court was deaf while he was speaking about MQM’s terrorism in Karachi.
He said he always spoke on the issue as Sindh home minister, as a senior minister, and as a senior vice president of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh. “The Sindh Assembly was the best forum I had, so I chose to speak there time and again. Last year on the floor of the house I said MQM is behind terrorism in the city. The chief justice was busy taking suo motu actions on other issues. I repeatedly made appeals to him to take notice of the killings in Karachi, but he was busy with the notice against President Asif Ali Zardari. What he was doing was in the interest of (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President) Nawaz Sharif. The killing of innocent people in Karachi was a more important matter than other issues,” said Mirza.
He said MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain were behind the conspiracy to break up Pakistan, and warned that nobody would be able to do anything once Pakistan split up or if Sindh was divided, because it would be an irreversible loss.
Replying to a question about Prime Minister Gilani’s remarks about him, he said he was pleasantly surprised and the respect he felt for the prime minister had increased. “I am thankful to him for his remarks,” said Mirza.
Mirza said he had zero trust in Babar Awan. “He has become an Islamic scholar now and our children are learning Islamic thought from his TV shows. But I am surprised that a scholar can lie for his personal interests,” said Mirza.
Relating a meeting headed by President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House with the ministers and MPAs of Sindh, he said the president was looking for someone who could talk to Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad and bring the MQM back into the government.
“I told the president in that meeting that five or six people, including me, were candidates for chief minister of Sindh, and anyone who wanted the post of chief minister could not confront or annoy the MQM or Altaf Hussain. They could not fight the case of the party and the people of Sindh in front of the MQM and its leader. They would have to agree with the MQM on everything because they want to be the chief minister,” said Mirza.
“I suggested that that responsibility should be given to someone from the Sindh Assembly, and I suggested Khursheed Shah. The president laughed and said: ‘What? You think Khursheed Ahmed Shah is not a candidate for Sindh chief minister?’ I replied that he could be but not for this tenure. The president accepted my suggestion and nominated Khursheed Shah to talk to the MQM. Khsursheed had held two meetings with the governor and all of sudden, because of another conspiracy, Babar Awan came onto the scene,” Mirza added.
GENERAL PASHA: Mirza also said he had meet Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha on the orders of President Zardari. “I wanted to clarify my position about allegations leveled against me. He gave me a lot of respect and listened to me very carefully. What he told me, there is no need to mention here,” said Mirza.
Turning his guns once again towards Rehman Malik, Mirza said it would be in Malik’s best interest to leave the country. “If I give one call, people will not allow Rehman Malik to come out of his house in Islamabad. He has only one way: to leave the country. If I want I can crush him under my boot. He acts according to his masters’ wishes on whose support he became the interior minister, and extended his support to his stepbrothers, the MQM. Rehman Malik is like one of those people who sit in Heera Mandi,” said Mirza.