KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has declared that his party will not accept the ‘minus-one formula’ and said the dream to crush it will never come true.

“I have called you at 3 in the night because we are at war.... We are being killed because the forces favouring status quo want to crush MQM with state powers. But their dream will never come true,” said Mr Hussain while speaking by phone from London to his followers gathered at the MQM’s Nine Zero headquarters early on Saturday.

In a hard-hitting speech in which he mainly criticised Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, the MQM chief asked why the Rangers raided his Karachi residence only when the Supreme Court had observed that the Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party, Pakistan Peoples Party, Sunni Tehreek and other parties too had militant wings.

Those attending the meeting replied in the negative when Mr Hussain asked whether the residence or headquarters of any other party had been raided by law enforcement agencies.

He said the process to “crush the MQM” had begun on March 11 when the Rangers raided its headquarters under the leadership of the captain of Karachi operation, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who enjoyed full support of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

MQM leader Amir Khan and arrested workers of the party were produced in court blindfolded as if they were prisoners of war, Mr Hussain said.

In a unique example in world history a death-row prisoner was allowed to make a video statement and neither the Supreme Court nor the government took notice of the illegal and unconstitutional act, the MQM chief said.

“Why did the police not raid Mian Nawaz Sharif’s home to arrest PML-N worker Gullu Butt? The raid on Nine Zero made Imran Khan, Shireen Mazari and other PTI leaders very happy, but today when the houses of PTI leaders Shibli Faraz and Azam Swati were raided the same Imran Khan condemned the raids and declared them undemocratic and illegal,” he remarked.

He regretted that instead of clarifying his position over a purported phone conversation between him and Arif Alvi, the PTI chief began abusing him (Altaf). He asked anchorpersons and television analysts to criticise the policies and decisions of and lack of discipline, if any, in the MQM, but to refrain from levelling “false and concocted” allegations against the party.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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