KARACHI – The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has demanded of President Asif Ali Zardari that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) disown the People’s Amn Committee. The MQM will continue its boycott of the Sindh Assembly session, set to resume on Thursday (today) after a gap of two days, until a decision on the matter is taken.
The MQM leadership returned to Karachi on Wednesday after meeting President Zardari, where they had initially demanded the removal of Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza or at least to change his portfolio.
Upon President Zardari’s refusal, MQM leaders demanded that the PPP categorically disown the Amn Committee – in much the same way as it announced it as one of its sub-organisations. PPP-MQM tensions rose for yet another time after Mirza’s “controversial” speech last Sunday, where he announced that the Amn Committee was a sub-organisation of the PPP. The MQM responded to the statement by claiming that it could not be part of a government that “openly supported a terrorist organization”.
An MQM delegation, led by MQM Rabita Committee’s Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar, returned to Karachi on assurances that Muttahida’s grievances would be looked into at a meeting on Sunday between leaders of the two parties.
Sattar, upon his arrival from Islamabad, said that President Zardari had listened to the grievances of the MQM in detail, and important decisions were expected in a meeting of the two parties’ leaders on Sunday. He added that the president had assured the MQM of action against criminal elements in Karachi. Replying to a question about Mirza’s removal, Sattar said that the MQM delegation had told the president all their demands and practical decisions would be taken at the meeting on Sunday. On the other hand, Muttahida leader Waseem Aftab claimed that Mirza’s removal was not the MQM’s main demand. “We are demanding that the PPP must disown the Amn Committee,” Aftab said.
Another MQM leader, Babar Ghauri, claimed that Interior Minister Rehman Malik would leave for London to meet Altaf Hussain and deliver President Zardari’s “important message”. Meanwhile, MQM spokesman Wassey Jalil told Pakistan Today on Wednesday that MQM’s provincial assembly members would continue their boycott of the Sindh Assembly’s proceedings. The MQM did not attend Monday’s session either, and Speaker Nisar Khuhro had adjourned proceedings till Thursday. “The Rabita Committee of the MQM has decided that it will persist with its principled stance until such time that the reservations of the party are removed,” said a party’s statement issued after a joint meeting of the Coordination Committee, which went on till late on Tuesday night.
