Persuades federal govt to set up monitoring committee to keep watch on ongoing crackdowns on criminals in Karachi
Jammiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman has been successful to persuade Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for unconditional talks over the issue of withdrawing its resignations.
Rehman, in first phase after successfully wooing MQM to come to the dialogue table without any strings attached, has also persuaded the federal government to set up a monitoring committee to keep a check ongoing crackdown on criminal elements in Karachi.
The JUI-F chief was assigned the task to play his role as mediator for convincing MQM for taking back the resignations and he got active without wasting a moment. He called MQM chief Altaf Hussain up and persuaded him to engage in unconditional dialogues which are expected to get started within next few days.
Fazl also remained successful in getting the government’s nod for the formation of a monitoring committee tasked to oversee the Karachi operation.
Sources said the proposed committee will comprise retired judges, retired police officials of good reputation, impartial journalists, and members of civil society.
Talking to a private TV channel on Sunday, Altaf Hussain said he would put the matter of returning to the parliament before MQM’s Rabitta Committee.
It is also pertinent to note that Speaker National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq has decided to meet each resigning member of MQM separately while the legal wing of the lower house is also set to forward its opinion on the issue to the speaker within a day or two.
LET’S CLEAR MISUNDERSTANDINGS:
Earlier, while speaking by phone from London to his supporters who had gathered at the Jinnah Ground in Karachi to attend the Independence Day celebrations late on Friday night, MQM chief Hussain asked Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif to provide an opportunity to an MQM delegation to meet him in order to remove ‘all misunderstandings’ between his party and the armed forces.
The MQM chief said his recent speeches had drawn severe criticism, but added, “What I said yesterday, I am saying it today that I refuse to accept an oppressive government or rulers whether civil or military”. He said many politicians had criticised the army even in parliament, but only he had been targeted and a ban imposed on his speeches.
He said MQM did not cancel celebrations despite the arrest of its workers and office-bearers in Landhi on the eve of the Independence Day. Expressing concern over “illegal arrests and enforced disappearances of party workers”, he alleged that MQM was being targeted in the garb of an action against criminal elements.
The MQM chief said “Haqiqi terrorists” had occupied parts of Landhi under what he called protection of Rangers, recalling a similar situation on June 19, 1992, the start of an operation against the Muttahida.
He recalled that in 1992 PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had phoned him in London and assured him that the government would stop the army operation against the MQM. However, he did nothing when intelligence agencies started following him, he added.
“Now, he [Chaudhry Nisar] is blaming me, but is not ready to utter a single word of condemnation against those Rangers personnel who are involved in extrajudicial killings of my workers.”
He urged the army chief to give an opportunity to an MQM delegation to meet him so that they could remove all “misgivings and misunderstandings” with the armed forces for the sake of the country.
ings” with the armed forces for the sake of the country.
