KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain asked the government on Wednesday to first hang Taliban militants who had been convicted of killing innocent people in the country.

Speaking from London over phone to MQM workers and supporters who gathered here after offering funeral prayers in absentia of the Peshawar victims, Mr Hussain said executions should not be carried out on political grounds.

He termed the conference of political leadership held in Peshawar against the backdrop of the school carnage a mere cosmetic measure and said the government should prepare and implement a comprehensive plan for the elimination of Taliban.

He warned the prime minister that people would hold him accountable if anyone was hanged wrongly. “I warn Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the federal cabinet that there should be no death sentences on political grounds.”

Mr Hussain asked the government to first hang those Taliban militants who had been convicted of attacking places of worship, markets, schools and national installations. “Then it [the government] should take an honest review of each and every case and convert the death sentences into life terms of those who have been languishing in jails for 15 to 25 years.”

He said new provinces should be formed on an administrative basis because four chief ministers could not effectively run a country of 200 million people.

The MQM chief asked Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to recruit local people in the police force on an emergency basis and grant the status of university to the Karachi Medical and Dental College.

The Muttahida chief said the cleansing exercise within the MQM would continue and he would soon reorganise the coordination committee and other bodies.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2014