Nation must decide if it’s with Taliban or against them: Altaf

Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain on Sunday said it was time for the nation to decide if it wanted the Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah or that of the Taliban, and it had to decide whether it was with the Taliban or against them.
“There is no third option,” Altaf said in a telephonic address to thousands of supporters in Karachi. Thousands of people rallied under the MQM banner in the port city in support of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl shot and critically wounded by the Taliban for promoting girls’ education and criticising the militant group.
Altaf said Malala was the symbol of knowledge which the Taliban wanted to suppress.
“The cowardly attack on Malala and her classmates was an attack on Islam, the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), and the humanity. It was an attack on the enlightened and bright face of Pakistan.”
Addressing the heads of the armed forces and the ISI, Altaf said the nation was firmly united in 1965.
“They were solidly standing behind their armed forces then, but the cold hearted attack on Malala Yousafzai had jolted the nation into even stronger unity. Nations do not get such opportunities again and again.”
The MQM chief called on the army to “move ahead and crush the Taliban” and 180 million people would be standing behind them.
Addressing the people, he said it was time to decide if they wanted Pakistan to survive and progress or if they would allow it to be wiped out from the map of the world.
He said mere lip service was not enough, as nothing would happen unless words are matched with action.
“The enlightened segment of the society will have to come to the front. The civil society will have to come forward and assert itself for saving the country.”
Altaf also called on students to “continue to go to your schools in order to dispel the dark clouds of ignorance. Education is the only way for opening the closed doors of the mind”.
He praised those religious scholars who minced no words in condemning the barbaric attack on Malala as un-Islamic. He said the religious scholars who shied away from condemning the Taliban for their dastardly act were, in fact, filling their bellies by selling the names of Allah and His Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) for petty worldly gains.
Commenting on drone strikes, Altaf regretted that some elements were trying to find some sort of justification for the brutal attack on Malala Yousafzai and her classmates by saying that it was a fall-out of the drone attacks. He said that the MQM had always condemned the drone strikes and the killing of innocent people in these attacks.
The MQM chief appealed to the Supreme Court chief justice to take suo motu notice of the merciless attack on Malala and her class fellows. Speaking about the Lal Masjid episode, Altaf said certain anchor persons were saying on TV channels that women were burnt alive during the Lal Masjid operation.
He said the names of the women allegedly burnt to death in Lal Masjid, their fathers’ names and complete addresses should be published in order to lay real facts before the public. The MQM chief asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges of the Supreme Court to take action against killers and those who wanted to enforce Sharia by force.
He said the Supreme Court should move against those who had looted national wealth but no party should be singled out, adding that the nation wanted justice and nothing else.
Altaf paid glowing tribute to the officers and personnel of the army and other security forces who were martyred while working for the security of the nation. He called upon the country’s political leadership to get united on a single point of saving Pakistan.