KARACHI, March 28: Chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain has chided religious and other opposition parties for criticizing the military operation in Wana, South Waziristan, and for holding Gen Musharraf responsible for the country's problems.
In a four-page expose, Mr Hussain maintained that those criticizing Gen Musharraf and the operation had no locus standi because in the past, he alleged, they had been proxy of the army and had served its interests in the former East Pakistan and even earlier.
The MQM chief said that it was a common knowledge that this operation was being carried out under pressure from the only super power, United States. Some people also held the view that had the government not launched the operation, the US and other coalition forces would have entered the country to carry out their own operation. Or else, the US would have carried out an unprecedented bombing in that area.
Mr Hussain sad that the tribal areas falling in FATA had never been part of any province of Pakistan and were governed through political agents. In these areas, he said, smuggling of narcotics and all types of weapons and other contraband was regarded as legal and normal business.
These areas also provided sanctuaries to renegades, car-lifters and absconders, etc., but no representative of the federal or provincial government could enter those areas to apprehend them. They had to be answerable to the concerned political agent and also had to comply with the decision of tribal court (jirga).
Referring to the ongoing military operation, Mr Altaf Hussain pointed out that some undesirable elements had been hiding there and the tribal jirga simply denied their presence in these areas.
He verified the government's claim of having credible evidence that some foreigners, including top Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders, had been hiding there.
It was not possible for the government to track them down with the help of a few hundred Frontier Constabulary or police personnel in an area spread over 27,219 square miles. That was why, he added, the army had to launch the operation, the first in 56 years, after all efforts to apprehend them had failed.
In the ensuing battle, helicopters and automatic weapons were used and both sides were suffering casualties. Innocent people, including women and children, were falling victims.
Some long tunnels, possibly used for sneaking out, had also been discovered. Mr Hussain pointed out that some Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs and Africans were among the dead which proved that a large number of foreigners were present in the tribal areas.
The MQM chief asked that when everybody knew what was happening in the tribal areas, and that it was a sanctuary for not only absconding offenders but also the foreigners carrying their own agenda, why did not the government of Pakistan take any action over the past 56 years?
Referring to many political and religious parties' stand accusing Gen Musharraf of a sell-out on Pakistan's sovereignty, Mr Hussain asked: "Why were these parties holding only Gen Musharraf responsible for everything? Why do they forget that the Kargil operation was called off by Mian Nawaz Sharif after meeting Bill Clinton? If Gen Musharraf was wrong, then Mian Nawaz Sharif should not only have ordered him to stop that but also would have sacked him immediately. Instead, the general was removed from his post when he was on a visit to Sri Lanka."
Altaf Hussain also criticized PPP and its chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto, saying that her party had played an important role in strengthening Taliban but changed its policy afterwards. Why, he asked. When Mir Murtaza Bhutto had been assassinated, there was not a general in power, he argued.
He was equally critical of the PPP founder, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, accusing him of serving the interests of his benefactors by supporting the operation in East Pakistan and threatening those who had been going to attend the assembly session in Dhaka.
Mr Hussain alleged that Mr Bhutto had opposed handing over of powers to Awami League, and after the eventual creation of Bangladesh, he had launched a campaign for its recognition.
The MQM chief accused Nawaz Sharif of grabbing power with the help of the armed forces and their agencies. He also accused religious parties, especially Jamaat-i-Islami, of 'creating Al-Shams and Al-Badr' and having been instrumental in the killing of Bengali Muslims in collaboration with the military.
Mr Hussain said that the US had emerged as the only super power because the religious parties had collaborated with it in dismembering the Soviet Union. They had even declared the dismemberment of Soviet Union 'victory of Islam', he recalled.
