KARACHI, Nov 2: MQM chief Altaf Hussain said here on Wednesday that it appeared that the commitment of the international community would not be sufficient to meet the cost of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims despite the UN appeal.

He said if imposition of taxes was considered in the Federal Cabinet or in the National Security Council, burdening the common man by imposing new or increasing the existing taxation, it would be unfair.

Instead of imposing taxes on the common man, it is now inevitable to impose taxes on agricultural income and vast landholdings of big landlords who have never paid any taxes on agricultural income or their vast landholdings.

Mr Hussain further stated that those elitist personalities who had their bank loans written off should be identified and all those loans be recovered on SOS basis from the squanderers of the national resources taking advantages of their status.

He further stated that the money looted and deposited into foreign accounts must also be repatriated on SOS basis and put back into the national exchequer to meet the challenges confronted as a result of the disastrous earthquakes.

He added that it was a travesty of justice that these looters and plunderers had never been taken to task but instead allowed to go scot-free while ordinary citizens were imprisoned on trivial issues and their death sentences were not even commuted into life imprisonment.

He said that time had now come to treat all the members of the public equally and the political expediency should be shredded off.

Mr Hussain demanded of the people at the helm of affairs to also reduce non-developmental expenditure forthwith.