October 22, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 28, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Muttahida Qaumi Movement Parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar said on Saturday party chief Altaf Hussain was not coming to the country due to ‘security risk’ and he would return when the atmosphere would be ‘conducive.’

“You can imagine how much risk is involved in Altaf Hussain’s return to the country due to the factors of fundamentalists, religious terrorists and establishment forces after three abortive attacks on the life of the president,” Dr Sattar said while answering a question at an Iftar dinner hosted by the party for media people.

He said the Muttahida would contest the next general elections from Punjab also as they had come to the province to stay. The party would win several seats from Punjab, he predicted.

Dr Sattar said Mr Hussain would come to the country only when the Muttahida’s Rabita Committee gave him green signal and when there was no security risk.

However, he added, Mr Hussain was in close contact with the people and he had spoken to them over 3,000 times over the past 15 years.

He said earlier the Muttahida had been concentrated only in Sindh and Islamabad but after last year’s earthquake, it had reached Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

He said the party had opened its offices in 30 districts of Punjab, four of Balochistan, seven of the NWFP and all of the districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.