KARACHI, Dec 3: Deputy Convenor of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Dr Farooq Sattar, who is also the MQM’s parliamentary party leader in the National Assembly, has condemned “slanderous propaganda against the party by vested interests” and said such elements were scared of his party’s growing popularity in Punjab.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted for the Punjab-based journalists here on Saturday, he said the MQM would respond to the propaganda by serving the masses.

“People of Punjab are joining MQM in large numbers and among them are the PPP workers who had struggled for democracy and were subjected to torture and suffered hardship,” he noted.

He said MQM will also play an important role in the politics of Punjab and secure seats from the province in the upcoming general elections. “MQM’s entry in the politics of Punjab will break the grip of traditional politics controlled by two per cent landlords and exploiters,” he predicted, and pointed out that his party’s popularity had forced other parties to opt for candidates from the middle class.

He observed that ever since its birth, the country has been under the rule of the tiny two per cent elite class that has never been interested in resolving the problems being faced by the poor and middle class population.

He claimed that his party was now gaining popularity day by day also in Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir.

Dr Farooq Sattar said that MQM would like to see an end to the role of armed forces in national politics once and for all, and said it was ready to cooperate for this specific purpose with all political parities provided they gave assurance that they would not use the back door or seek help of armed forces to come into power.

He said MQM wanted to strengthen democratic institutions in the country and believed that the problems of poor and middle class people could be solved only when they were given representation in the assemblies and decision-making bodies to have a say in the formulation of policies. MQM, he added, was ready to sort out this issue in debates at any forum. About the construction of Kalabagh Dam, he said that MQM was against any dam that harmed the federation.