While talking to a private TV channel, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has said that his party was against confrontation and that resignations of the lawmakers represented a “response to the minus-Altaf formula”.
“MQM is a democratic party and any decision regarding withdrawal of resignations from assemblies would be made after the party’s talks set to be brokered by Maulana Fazlur Rehman,” Hussain said.
Hussain said had MQM believed in terrorism, the law enforcers would have to face resistance in the ongoing operation in Karachi, particularly in areas where Mohajirs are in majority. However, no such thing happened, he said, adding that “every party has good and bad elements” and a process of cleansing has been going on in MQM since 1984.
The MQM chief said he talked to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman on the telephone and that the latter did not present any condition for the negotiations. He regretted that despite reminders to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the monitoring committee was not constituted to oversee the ongoing crackdown on criminal elements in Karachi.
