KARACHI – The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) are at loggerheads once again – courtesy Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza. The home minister on Sunday finally accepted the People’s Amn Committee of Lyari as one of the PPP’s sub-organisation, sparking a retort from MQM leaders that they wanted to leave the Sindh government. The situation has prompted President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik to take notice of Mirza’s statement, but till the filing of this report, no action has been taken by the PPP leadership. Mirza’s statement is the first time any PPP leader has officially accepted the Amn Committee a part of their party.
The Amn Committee has long been held by the MQM to be a terrorist group, with a number of activists from both sides perishing to armed skirmishes between the two groups. The MQM had held the Amn Committee to be responsible for the Shershah carnage as well. Sunday’s statement was significant since the home minister had previously denied any link between the PPP and the Amn Committee. But while speaking at an event on Sunday in Malir that was organised to commemorate the struggle of slain PPP leader Abdullah Murad, Mirza said: “I am announcing today that the People’s Amn Committee is a sub-organisation and a part of the PPP. “If the Amn Committee’s people are considered criminal, then I am a criminal too! They are our children and soldiers of the PPP. The spilling of Amn Committee activists blood means that the PPP’s blood has been spilled,” Mirza said.
