LAHORE – A movement like Tunisia and Egypt could emerge in Pakistan if traditional politicians belonging to the feudal system tried to obstruct the MQM’s call for a revolution, party senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar said on Saturday.
Flanked by former minister Babar Ghauri, Sindh IT minister Raza Haroon, MQM central coordination committee member Saif Yar Khan and other office bearers from Punjab, Sattar told reporters in a press conference arranged at the Lahore Press Club that they had submitted a formal request with the district coordination officer seeking permission to hold a public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan on April 10.
He hoped that the Punjab government would grant them permission to hold the meeting as they came to Punjab with an open mind and heart. Asked what would happen if the permission was not granted, he said there was no room for “if and buts”, as it was a legal and constitutional right of the MQM to spread its message across the country. He said a large number of people from across the province would attend the gathering that would prove that the people of Punjab were tired of corrupt politicians and wanted change under the leadership of MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
Sattar said mass gathering of non-Urdu speaking people held under the MQM banner at Jinnah Ground Aziz Abad, Karachi, on January 30 was proof of the party’s penetration in the masses. He said that MQM was the only political party which represented and comprised of working, middle class and poor people of the country that were presently down trodden, disadvantaged and exploited by the two percent ruling elite.
“MQM has revolutionised politics and its elected representatives and office bearers were chosen by ordinary party workers and people on merit, not by virtue of being born in a feudal family or political dynasty,” Sattar said. He said the MQM believed in the induction of the common man in the power structure to provide maximum opportunity to economically and socially deprived people.
