KARACHI, May 28: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement staged a big rally on Monday in front of the Quaid’s mausoleum to criticise cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan for his remarks against MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

However, MQM Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar termed the rally a beginning of the party’s campaign for the 2007 general election.

Holding banners, posters and placards and shouting slogans against Mr Khan, MQM workers gathered at the Numaish intersection and marched towards the mausoleum. Both tracks of Sharah-i-Quaideen were packed with people.

One side of M.A. Jinnah Road was closed for vehicular traffic except for those driving in to participate in the rally. For several hours, traffic remained standstill because of the road closure.

Some participants of the rally carried posters of Sita White and her daughter while a few others carried banners demanding Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed to suggest punishment for an adulterer. They urged the government to unseat Mr Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, from the National Assembly. The MQM workers held Mr Khan responsible for introducing gambling in cricket and burnt his effigies.

Addressing the rally participants, Dr Sattar said his party, by holding the rally, allowed its enraged activists to vent their feelings in a peaceful manner. He claimed that the Muttahida was the true follower of the philosophy of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. By holding a peaceful rally in front of his mausoleum, they proved that it was a peaceful and law-abiding party, he insisted.

Criticising the PTI chief for his remarks against the MQM chief, Dr Sattar said that Mr Khan secured only 2,200 votes from a National Assembly seat in Karachi during the 2002 general election and one of his candidates, who secured the highest votes from Karachi (ie 6,500 votes) was now a worker of the MQM.

The rally participants condemned Mr Khan when Dr Sattar said the PTI chief wrote a letter to the US House of Representatives and the Senate on May 14 inviting them to intervene in the affairs of Pakistan in the backdrop of the May 12 incidents. However, he said, the debate on the May 12 incidents, as well as Mr Khan’s political career, was over, as he believed the rally was the start of the MQM’s election campaign for the upcoming general election.

He said the Muttahida would work for the independence of the judiciary and get it freed from the control of the executive. He maintained that the MQM would play its role in strengthening true and proactive democracy in the country where people would have their say in the policy-making process.

“Had the propaganda of the May 12 incidents was not spread, the Haq Parast would have emerged victorious from all over Punjab,” he said, adding that the people of Punjab were still supporting Altaf Hussain.

Earlier, other MQM leaders Shaikh Liaquat Hussain, Anwar Alam and Abdul Haseeb also spoke.