Will create problems
A day after the publication of Owen Bennett-Jones report on BBC, the Interior Ministry decided to send a letter seeking information from Britain on alleged ties between the MQM and the Indian government. Meanwhile, MQM’s legal team is reportedly all set to dispatch a letter to BBC’s headquarter seeking apology failing which it is supposed to take legal action. While it will take time before the facts are ascertained, the Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution in haste demanding the trial of Altaf Hussain and his ‘accomplices’ under Article 6 ‘if the claims in the BBC report turn out to be true’. Couldn’t the members of the provincial assembly wait till the claims were proved? The hasty reaction from Punjab is likely to be interpreted as an expression of prejudice in the urban centres of Sindh where the MQM still enjoys popularity as shown by the results of NA-246 despite the Saulat Mirza video hype.
With about two dozen PPP parliamentarians and ministers from Sindh having been put on the ECL, a perception has been created of an imminent large scale action against the PPP. Coming at a time when the province is gearing for Local Government elections, any large scale arrests of prominent PPP politicians are likely to be interpreted as an attempt to help the party’s rivals.
At a meeting between the Prime Minister and the COAS early this week it was decided to take on the ‘criminals’ also, along with the terrorists. Laws already exist in the country to deal with the criminals, so do the civilian institutions to nab and try them. This explains why the NAP formulated through a consensus by all political parties focused solely on ‘religious and sectarian terrorists’. It is ironic that while major provisions of NAP remain unimplemented, another complicated task that can best be performed by the police, civilian investigating agencies and courts is being made a part of the ongoing operation’s agenda without a national consensus.
